Simpson Family Updates

6 Month Recap!

2011-06-26T18:00:00.000-07:00

Snowpacalypse Continued

2011-02-06T13:56:00.000-08:00

Because of the ice storm, our driveway was covered in about 3 inches of straight ice. Today was finally warm enough for us to scrape the ice off the driveway.

Oh yeah! Drew is skating on our walkway!

Syd is working away on the first layer of ice on the driveway.

Simon is all bundled up for the cold weather.

Mom has finally reached the cement of the driveway. It took a lot of work!

Natalie works hard... and looks cute too!

It took the whole family to get the driveway clean.

Here's the pile of ice that came off the driveway.

Ta-dah! The driveway is all clear!

Snowpacalypse 2011

2011-02-06T12:04:00.000-08:00

As many of you have probably heard, the Midwest was struck by an ice storm this past week. It was quite the sight to see! We're used to snow storms, but ice was a different story. Here are some pictures we took of our yard.

One of the things that came along with the snow storm was 3 days off school! Woohoo! So what else do you do on a snow day? Watch Clone Wars of course!

We also spent the time playing Monopoly. That took about 3 hours!

And what's a snow day without crazy pictures of your sisters? After spending more time than usual on our hair and makeup, we took a bunch of fun pictures. Here are just a few for your enjoyment.

We decided that Snowpacalypse 2011 was pretty fun! With the snow days came a chance to spend more time together as a family playing games, watching movies, playing Wii, making about every type of cookie in the recipe book and just talking and laughing with each other. Hooray for snow days!

Incredible Pizza Company!

2011-01-23T07:50:00.000-08:00

We had a long week after Christmas break so we decided to go to Incredible Pizza Company with some of our Christmas money. We had a great time riding the bumper cars, driving cars on the racetrack, mini golfing, bowling and playing video games. As always, we used the hundreds of tickets we amassed playing skee ball to buy a slinky that broke, a rubber monkey that got lost and a ball and paddle which is still functioning (miracle) and googly eye glasses. It's a party!

Umm... I don't even know what to say about this... :)

Route 66 Mini Golfing! Heck yes!

Oh! Area 51! Aliens?

Natalie sits next to a cactus, hope she doesn't get pocked!

Simon makes one cute girl :)

Simon is one cool kid!

Drew sits upon the Alamo!

We come in peace! Drew meets the aliens!

Wow! Blue, Paul Bunyan's Ox!

Natalie IS in Kansas, Toto!

Syd is just about to stop and stay in the Spring River Inn!

What a nice looking windmill!

The big whale!

Drew is looking pretty cool in under the black light on Route 66.

Oh my goodness! Simon is about to eat a rocket!

Crazy Drew, ready to bump into everyone!

Here is Simon in the bumper cars. It was called "The Spin Zone."

And the winner of the fast race.... is Emma! She was pro at racing in the go-carts!

Sydney in her go-cart. Too bad she didn't win the race :)

Emma, Sydney and Dad all ready to race in the fast line! Oh yeah!

Poor Natalie wasn't 14 so she couldn't race in the "fast lane" But she had fun racing the boys!

Mom and Drew about to take off!

Simon is all ready to race in the go carts!

Cool old convertible in the front! The boys are excited to be at the arcade!

Here are Drew and Simon in the King's Chair at the entrance of Incredible Pizza!

A New Year....

2011-01-16T17:00:00.000-08:00

So it's been a while since we've blogged so we have a lot to catch up on. Maybe this year we will blog more often :)

Thanksgiving:

Yay Turkey Day! This year we were thrilled to be joined with our friends Kevin and Kari Schroeder and their daughter Faith from Idaho, our Grami from Utah, and our friend Chris from Indiana. We bought this amazing cake from Shapiro's Deli in Indianapolis and that was definitely the highlight of dinner. (No offense to the poor turkey sacrificed for our meal:)

Here is the cake in all of its glory! It's a three layer chocolate cake and cheesecake combo. Yum!
This is our friend Chris. She has recently been baptized. We are so glad she's our friend!

Grami and Syd coloring in a Precious Moments coloring book. Syd wants the whole book colored!

And this is just a crazy picture that proves too much chocolate cake is never a good thing!

A few days before Thanksgiving, Simon got to skip school and go to Chicago with Dad, Kevin, Kari and Faith.

Here they are at the very tip top of the tallest building in Chicago. Simon absolutely loved it! He was super excited to be in the 3rd largest city in the U.S. for the first time.

Christmastime:

We took a trip to the Children's Museum! The Yule Slide was brought out and the Holiday Traditions exhibit was filled with fun games for everyone to play.We especially loved the giant chess set! (an inspiration for Simon's Christmas present!)

Holiday decorations atop the entrance of the Children's Museum! The Christmas tree is amazing!

Yule Slide race! Looks like Syd won that race! Better luck next time Dad :)

I think Drewbie won that race. Natalie's right on his tail though!

This Snow Globe is the right inside. It just puts you in the holiday spirit right away!

The Christmas tree in front of the Yule Slide!
The really cool chess set! This time at the Museum, the play was Dorthy Returns. Simon and Drew had fun dressing up like the scarecrow!

Christmas vacation!!!!! :

We started the day in Indianapolis and ended up in Salt Lake City! We had such a great time visiting with all of our cousins from Utah! We visited with Jessica, recently home from the South Dakota, Rapid City Mission, with Grandmother and Grami, then of course all of the cousins, aunts, and uncles. We went to the Nybo's new house in Kaysville, it was beautiful! And we made tons of delicious cookies!

Then on December 24th we traveled to Idaho! We had our annual Chinese haystacks and caroling at Grandma Mae's house, and then it was off to bed... (sort of :))

When 7:00 rolled around we woke up and Christmas began! We of course had to wait for Jan to arrive. Once she was there, we read the Christmas story in Luke. I love Christmas and the reminder each year of our Savior's birth.

Our presents were perfect! We had such a great year this year! Thanks Mom and Dad!

After presents at Grandma's house we went to Big Juds to have Christmas breakfast! It was super amazingly delicious! And we had our presents from Grandma and Jan of course! They were all so much fun!

Simon with his Chess set. (Wonder where we got that idea? :))

Drew opening some of his Christmas presents.

The girls each got one of these super cute flower headbands!

Awh... Mom and Dad Christmas morning!

While we were in Idaho, I got to go on a date with my good friend Nathan! We went ice skating in Idaho Falls and then we went to see Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I had so much fun! Thank you Nathan! :)

So one of the things that I wanted to do in Idaho was go Prom dress shopping, because it is kind of hard to find a modest Prom dress here in Indiana. I wasn't expecting to find a dress on the first day looking but I did! It was super fun and exciting, so we decided to have a cousin fashion show so each of us could feel like a princess.

My Prom dress! I found it at the Circle of Love in Rexburg.

Ellie sporting a dress from Grandma's dress up!

Christian and Natalie dancing around! Another dress from Grandma's basement!Sydney wearing Mom's wedding dress. It is still perfectly white!

And Kira in another Grandma basement favorite!

We had such a fun time dressing up and jamming out to Natalie's new Taylor Swift CD! Doesn't everyone look simply gorgeous?

After our fabulous fashion show, New Year's Eve rolled around. The Niederer cousins from Boise joined the party and we all went to Jud's to celebrate. There was tons of good food, there was lots of Kinect playing and there was even a heated game of Blokus.

New Year's Day came and we headed to Utah to finish our vacation. Before we headed home though we HAD to go to the Taco Time in Kaysville, Utah. I don't know why, but it's like my favorite resturant in the world :) It is decked out with all kinds of Mexican decor and it is just the coolest place in Kaysville! (besides the Nybo's house of course!)

Heck yes we're at Taco Time!! And proud of it!

Free ice cream samples, always a plus!

Some sweet pictures of the girls :)

Gotta love the Taco Time pictures! Thanks for taking us to the greatest resturant on Earth Mom and Dad!

And that's all folks! I'll try to stay ahead this year!

Family Pictures

2010-10-31T10:56:00.000-07:00

As we were looking back at our family pictures a little while ago, we realized that the last time we had family pictures was when Emma was 12 and Drew was 2. We decided that all of us had grown a lot since then! We called our friend Sarah Martin and she agreed to take our family pictures at the Art Museum.

Visits to Indiana

2010-10-03T11:33:00.000-07:00

Lots has been happening in Indiana! Sorry it's been so long since we've posted. Over the last few months we have had lots of people visit us! Emma's friend Nathan from American Falls, our Grandma and Grandma Jan from Rexburg, and Darrin's brother Jeff and his wife from Orem. Each of our visitors were able to see the great sites of Plainfield and Indianapolis; Friendship Park, the Children's Museum, the Art Museum, the Indy track, the Canal Walk, Long's Doughnuts... there were lots of places to see!

Top picture: Here Jeff and Mariann are at Turkey Run State Park in Marshall Indiana. It is gorgeous there! Bottom left: A group of us at Friendship Park in Plainfield. Bottom right: Darrin and Jeff and Turkey Run State Park
Top left: Grandma, Simon and Drew in "Egypt" at the Children's Museum. Top right and Bottom Left: Jan, Grandma, Simon and Drew in front of a mammoth skeleton at the Children's Museum. Bottom Right: Grandma and Jan in the Carousel: Wishes and Dreams section of the Children's Museum

Top pictures: The Art Museum and Downtown Indianapolis. Bottom Pictures: Trip to Chicago

Thanks for visiting us everyone! We had such a great time! We love you!

Babysitting 2010

2010-07-25T16:08:00.001-07:00

These are some pictures of our neighborhood Carnival. Because we have been babysitting this summer we have needed to come up with some activities that we could all enjoy planning and executing. Our carnival was complete with a Popsicle Walk booth run by Emma, a Hole in One Booth run by Dad, a Kissing Booth run by Simon, a Pin the Nose on the Clown booth run by Natalie, a Fishing Pond booth run by Sydney, and a Treasure Hunt booth run by MacKenzie and a Fortune Teller Booth run by Mom. It was quite a success!

This is a video we made this summer of our neighbor kids in our NEIGHBORHOOD BAND!! It's pretty awesome not gonna lie. We just decided to dress up as rockstars one day and it just happened to be 90 DEGREES OUTSIDE! Oh well, we had a great time!

Here are the many pictures of Jenna and Tessa the girls that Emma babysat all summer long!

Trip to Palmyra!

2010-06-06T17:32:00.000-07:00

School's Out! Let the family vacationing begin! We took a trip to see the church history sites in Ohio and New York. Our first day of the trip was spent at the Kirtland temple and the Newel K. Whitney Home and Store. The next few days we spent in Palmyra New York. We visited the Smith Home and the Sacred Grove, Sodus Point/ Lake Ontario and the Grandin Printing Press. Darrin, Sydney and Emma had the opportunity to do baptisms for the dead in the Palmyra temple and Jennifer was able to do an early morning temple session the next day. Our nights were spent at the Seneca Lake Girl's Camp. The couple running the camp, Brother and Sister Taylor were actually from Pocatello, Idaho! Sunday, we attended the Fayette ward and then visited the Whitmer Farm. Monday was our drive home and the babysitting began! (Jennifer, Sydney and Natalie are babysitting our next door neighbor's kids all summer and Emma is also babysitting this summer)

The Mini!

2010-05-23T14:45:00.000-07:00

5:25 am: WELCOME TO THE 2010 INDIANAPOLIS 500 FESTIVAL MINI MARATHON!

6:55 am We barely make the 5k start line--Emma and Nat take off

7:30 am It is 40 degrees and windy, think Idaho windy

7:39 am We cross the start line and the 13.1 miles of fun begin

Darrin and Syd cross the finish line with personal best times! Jennifer crosses the finish line after running the whole way (the personal best time is impossible after a 5 minute delay at the port a potty which a mother of five must wait for)

What a great adventure! Running with 35,000! The weather was cold and windy the whole way. On our walk back to the car about a mile and a half from the finish line, Sydney's hat blows off. She zipped a ten dollar bill into her hat for after race snacks which we decided to buy when we got home. Her hat blew into the canal (a water feature in downtown Indianapolis). I told her not to worry about it that I would give her ten bucks, but babysitting money is hard earned and she dove in after the hat. Soaked and freezing, she made it to the car 15 minutes later and luckily did not catch pneumonia! Next year, I am not stopping at the port a potty and I may just beat Darrin's time. . . or not

Family Pictures

2010-05-09T18:58:00.000-07:00

We went to the park tonight and took some pictures. Emma is a great photographer!

My New Life

2010-05-07T11:30:00.000-07:00

My New Life

Happy Birthday Syd!

2010-05-05T14:02:00.000-07:00

Happy 14th Birthday Syd! Sydney turned 14 yesterday, May 4th. We all had a great time playing at the park with her new tennis stuff! She also got some money from Grandma and Jan and Aunt Mariann and Uncle Jeff. Thanks guys you are all AWESOME!

Sydney and Natalie have been competing in track this year. Both girls are great athletes. Recently Sydney won the 100m Low Hurdles and 2nd in the Long jump. She is such an amazing girl! Natalie also competes in the long jump... lets just say she is WAY better than I (Emma) ever was at track :)

Spring Break 2010

2010-04-03T16:35:00.000-07:00

Spring Break 2010! We had a great time!

2010-03-17T19:03:00.000-07:00

Due to some recent circumstances such as getting random drug tested at PHS and filling out my medical form for girls camp I thought the time had come to post some info about my health. I have recently been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis a chronic disease affecting the central nervous system. MS is different for everybody and so far my only symptom is some numbness/tingling in my left hand. I was diagnosed because of the results of two MRIs. My mom's dad had MS and her sister, my Aunt Rebecca has MS. I take a daily injection called COPAXONE which reduces the effects of MS.

Because I was diagnosed early in life, have only one real symptom and started taking the medicine the outlook for me is good. I am feeling pretty good. You do not need to worry. You don't even have to ask me about it. However, if you are feeling badly for me I will take a cash donation for an ipod touch. (just kidding!)

Random Simpson Pics

2010-02-21T14:41:00.001-08:00

These are just some random pictures I found sitting on my camera that I finally downloaded to the computer. :) 1st picture: This is our neighbor Liza and Drew being pretty crazy!
2nd picture: This a picture of all of our neighbor kids going sledding the day we had the day off of school for snow. It was a cold outside, but really fun! Pictured left to right: Back row- Simon, Emma, Rachel, Triston, Mackenzie Bottom row- Sydney, Noah, Liza, Drew and Natalie
3rd picture: This is the same day we went sledding. Sydney and Natalie invited all the girls from the neighborhood to have a tea party. Sitting next to Sydney is her 4 year old friend Annika, and across the table from Sydney and Annika are Mackenzie and Rachel.
4th picture: Drew found an icicle that looked exactly like Percy Jackson's lightning bolt! Our family saw Percy Jackson and the Olympians on President's Day and we loved it! (especially Drew)
5th picture: This picture is really random... but hey! Sydney has been saving her pennies to buy her doll Josephina a new wig. These are the before and after pictures

Well I hope you enjoy the randomness of each and every one of these pictures!

A Visit to Dayton Ohio

2010-02-14T14:42:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago we a day off of school and we decided to travel to Dayton Ohio! We were able to see the National Air Force Museum which was very cool. There were tons and tons of United States Air Force planes, jets, blimps, helicopters and there was even a rocket!
After the Airforce Museum we went to this eclectic grocery store called Jungle Jims. The store was like Chucky Cheeses but it was full of groceries not games. It did have a great selection of animatronics! One of our favorite animatronics was Elvis who sang every five minutes. "You ain't nothin' but a hound dog" Another exciting feature Jungle Jim's had to offer was the movie closet... I mean the movie theater where you watch the evolution of the Jungle Jim's fruit stand to the hodge podge heaven it is today. Then we went to IKEA and found a $20 desk and $15 chair so Emma could more comfortably spend all her time studying.

A Visit to the Children's Museum

2010-01-17T14:50:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday we took a trip to the Children's Museum! During the Holiday Season the Children's Museum has its Jolly Holiday Exibit! One of the many fun things to do is ride down the "Yule Slide". The "Yule Slide" is a HUGE slide that replaces the stairs up to the 2nd level in the museum. It was pretty awesome! The Jolly Holiday Exibit was really fun too. There was a snowball fight (the snow balls were cotton balls) an ice fishing pond (pretty nice catch I made eh?) and then there was the Ice Castle which was really only for little kids but since none of us read the sign saying "The Ice Castle is only for children 36" and smaller" we all climbed up the castle. (he he :)) New to the Children's Museum this year is an awesome Barbie exibit! It is spectacular!

Christmas 2009

2009-12-29T20:15:00.000-08:00

Christmas in Idaho and Utah very fun. We have been able to visit with family and friends in Aberdeen, American Falls, Pocatello Salt Lake city, Orem, Rexburg, Burley and Idaho falls. We have had a great time! Our Bosie cousins are coming tomorrow yeah! We miss our Indiana friends but we will be back in one week. happy holidays everyone.

We'll be home for Christmas!!

2009-12-06T14:06:00.000-08:00

We are coming to Idaho/Utah over Christmas break in just 4 short days! We are all very excited!

This morning was our stake conference so we were out of church early which gave us a chance to go to downtown Indianapolis to see the lights!

We loved walking around practicing the variety show songs Darrin would like all of us to sing on the plane ride to Utah Thursday. He figures we could make enough money to check our bags if we follow the adage from Elf "The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing out for all to hear." That could work or we could be interrogated. . . .

Miscellaneous

2009-11-08T13:58:00.000-08:00

Pinewood Derby! Simon took 4th place out of a total of 8! Nice job Si! He also won "The Most Scary Award" In one heat Simon beat the winner, Darren Weiss, the video is below:

We were going to post Halloween pictures but it turns out we didn't take any! There ARE some pictures of Emma and her friend Shantelle and Syd in their Halloween costumes from the Trunk or Treat.

Natalie went to the 6th grade Halloween Dance and she won the costume contest as Ms. Smartpants! We unfortunately do not have a picture of her adorable costume. Simon was a knight clad in a costume from Goodwill our DI equivalent. Drew was a muscle man also in a costume from Goodwill. Speaking of Goodwill--I found a treasure. They Might Be Giants album Flood was .99 and I didn't know but it was 50% off every green item day sooo the CD was .54
AMAZING!!

2009-11-01T15:08:00.000-08:00

We had a great time on our trip with the Nybos. We drove 1400 miles, walked 26 and ate 5 chicken nuggets a piece (four times). We have a firm commitment from Simon that he will be employed in some capacity at the White House so we can all be invited to a banquet at some future date.

The Nybos also saw some of the great sites in Indiana and most of them got to sleep in beds soooo. . . who is next? We could go on a tour of area football stadiums and pick up a game at say Ohio State, we could go to Graceland, church history sites anyone? How about New York City? I hear Boston is a great place to visit or maybe Philadelphia and don't forget the Indianapolis 500. Indianapolis is just a one day drive to any of the places on this list (mind you, it's a long day but it's all part of the adventure)!! Book your trip today!

Thanks Nybos! We love you!

Wanna here what everyone liked best on the trip to DC? Watch the video below

And the Winner Is.....

2009-10-06T12:28:00.000-07:00

And the Winner is..... #2!!! Thank you so much everyone for your opinions and for helping me pick my favorite! You guys are awesome!
Emma

Fill the Frame Assingment

2009-10-05T17:16:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures I have taken for an assignment in my Digital Photojournalism class. This assignment is "Fill the Frame" My assignment is due Tues. Oct. 6th and I am having a hard time picking a picture to turn in!!!!! Please comment and tell me your favorite!
Option #1
Option #2 (my favorite I think)
Option #3
Option #4
Option #5

Option #6

Option #7And Option #8

Thanks for your help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LSAT

2009-09-27T14:08:00.000-07:00

I took the LSAT on Saturday, September 26. Due to the prayers on my behalf, the Go, Fight, Win speech from Grandma Mae, my positive visualization, and the lucky Bonneville Top Notch Bee pencil I found (Emma was a super top notch bee every week in the first grade and we still have one of her pencils) the test went well. I don't know my score, I will find out on October 19 but I do have the weirdest muscle ache of all time--the back of my neck really hurts from being bent intently over a test for five hours!! Here is a sample LSAT question for you to try:

Advertisement: RediMed is the cold treatment to choose. People who treat their colds with RediMed have symptoms half as severe as those suffered by people who leave their colds untreated.

The flawed pattern of reasoning in which one of the following is most similar to that in the advertisement above?

A. When cooking spaghetti, you should add the salt to the water when the water is already boiling since the spaghetti takes on a bitter flavor otherwise.

B. National Financial is the place for your everyday banking, since it has more checking account customers than any other bank.

C. Tuff-Grip tires are the ones to choose, since in trials by consumer magazine they were found to be the most durable and the safest.

D. The lubricant to select for locks is graphite, since unlubricated locks are stiffer than locks lubricated with graphite and sometimes freeze completely.

E. If you are not going to use butter for frying, you should use olive oil, since European chefs use olive oil.

I will post the answer as a comment to this post. Now, imagine having that much fun for five hours with one fifteen minute break!! Thank you to everyone for your prayers and awesome support! Love ya!

Day Trip to Cinncinatti

2009-09-21T16:36:00.000-07:00

What do you do if you don't have school? Go to Cincinnati of course, you silly!

Trip to Graeters Ice Cream, walk on the Purple People Bridge and a stop at the bicentennial park our spontaneous day trip to Cincinnati/Newport Kentucky was great!

2009-08-30T16:14:00.000-07:00

Big Jud Visits Plainfield
Jud came to visit us on Wednesday night. He said "Wow, I can't believe it has taken me this long to get to Plainfield. I am surprised every family member has not made it out to visit." We had a great time! Jud treated us to dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings and we had 3 appetizers. The Simpson kids, prior to this experience, were unaware that 'appetizer' was a choice on a restaurant menu. Jud was very good humored about visiting on the day our air conditioner died. He got to see some of the GIANT bugs that make a lot of noise when we were visiting on the deck because the house was so hot. We already miss him. It was really fun to see him.

Our friend Alison showed us a new park and we had a fun time on the hiking trails and the tire swing. Enjoy the video of everyone dancing to the David Archuleta songs we downloaded for family home evening when Darrin was at a conference in Washington DC. Washington DC would be such an awesome place to visit with cousins. . . .

1st Week of School

2009-08-16T14:28:00.000-07:00

It was the first week of school what else can I say? Since our cousins in Idaho and Utah don't start school for another 2 weeks... we are feeling pretty picked on. When asked about the first day of school Drew said he was excited to play on the new playground. He said this about it : "Today I got to play on the new playground and I slid down this slide and it wasn't dangerous at all! 'Cause my teacher would worry if there was danger!" Simon liked the school lunch, Natalie on the other hand hates lunch, Sydney "Wow 7 classes, that's a lot." Emma says "There's such a time as 5 AM that's wrong." We all partied when it was Friday. We had Rice Krispie treats with Reeses Pieces and we had a few friends over.
The fun started Saturday morning with an array of colorful pancakes. We then spent the rest of the day in Bloomington IN home of Indiana University. We had to ask for directions at the local Subway to find our way to campus. Campus is beautiful with lots of flowers and trees, some rolling hills and rocks! It reminded us of home (where they are still not in school did we mention that???)

Last Week of Summer

2009-08-09T13:58:00.000-07:00

This past week was the last week of our summer break! Grami came to visit, Emma went to Youth Conference and Sydney went to Egypt???

At the Children's Museum this month there is an exhibit called "Take Me There: Egypt." The exhibit is really cool, it shows you all about what life is like in Egypt and it looks like you are really there! Grami was able to come with us to the Children's Museum on Wednesday and we had a ton of fun! (partly because Mom was nice enough to take the boys around so that the rest of us could spend time looking at the exhibits:) The Children's Museum was awesome! But wait I am getting ahead of myself..... let's start back with Monday night....

On Monday, after registering everyone for school, we went to the zoo with Grami! We saw the dolphin show (one of our favorite things about the zoo) and that was almost all we had time to do before the zoo closed :)After our visit to the zoo we went on a lovely walk down the canal. Photo Op at the Mammoth statue! Each of us sat on this Woolly Mammoth statue on the Canal.... we don't even really know why.
Then after our walk on the canal we went to the Indianapolis Central Library. There is a great view of the city from the top floor of the library. The library also has the coolest kid's section complete with the comfiest egg shaped chairs in the world! Monday night was pretty much jam packed with fun!

On Tuesday it rained and rained and rained! We spent most of the day indoors reading books and teaching Grami to play chess :) After it finished raining we went to Wal-Mart and bought school supplies.

Wednesday of course we went to the Children's Museum! We sort of had to rush out of there though so that Dad could go to Institute. I (Emma) was able to take a friend (Shantelle) with me to Institute with my dad.

Thursday was the time to go shoe shopping.... but as shopping always goes we came back from the store and none of the shoes we had purchased for Simon fit his feet.... another trip to the shoe store on Saturday :)

After shopping I had the chance to go to my stake's Youth Conference! I had so much fun! Thursday there was a dance at the church and that night we stayed at member's homes in the area. On Friday we spent the day doing a big service project. We painted a barn and cabins at a local Girl's Scout Campground. Finally on Saturday we had testimony meeting at the church and we went home!

Everyone at home still had a good time without me though!

These are pictures of the boys and their "disguises" for their spy game!

Saturday was my birthday! Grami treated our family to a trip to the Cheesecake Factory! Thank you Grami! I recieved some $$$ money from Grandma Mae and Jan, Grami and Jeff and Marianne for my birthday. My mom bought me some Bath and Body Works body spray, lotion, and shower gel! The rest of the night we spent hanging out at our house reading the book "Weird Indiana" a gift from our friends the Tilleys.

Now here it is the last day of summer, my dad's birthday, Grami has gone back to Salt Lake and we are preparing for school tomorrow. We will miss our summer break but the last week of summer 2009 was awesome!

Simon's Baptism and Party

2009-08-02T08:32:00.000-07:00

Simon Joshua Simpson was baptized on August 1 2009! We are so pleased with him! Grami gave a talk on Baptism and Sydney gave a talk on the Holy Ghost. Emma and Natalie provided the music. It was such a nice meeting.

After the baptism we had a party for Simon! Kung Fu Panda :)!! We played a game called Sensei, a game called I Wanna Know You, and we also had a fish pond! (Classic :) There was also a May Pole at the party!

Simon taught us how to do 3 Karate moves, and we all had fun dancing underneath the plastic disco ball and neon open sign in the dark basement.

Overall the day was filled with fun with our family!

Fashion Show 2009

2009-07-25T10:25:00.000-07:00

School Clothes Galore! Here is our video of all the new school clothes! Fabulous!

Simon's Birthday, Trip to Michigan

2009-07-20T19:37:00.000-07:00

65 degrees with a breeze and yet all of the kids are diving into Lake Michigan as if it were a balmy 95! Yes it really was freezing when we were at Lake Michigan this past weekend. We spent Thursday, Friday and Saturday in Michigan visiting the sites of Saugatuck, Holland and South Haven. In Saugatuck we took a hike that was 282 steps to the top... yeah it was pretty hard :) We also took a ride on a cruise ship where we saw some of the sights of Lake Michigan. It was really beautiful and fun! When we finally reached Holland we were starving because all we had eaten that day was the stale muffins from the hotel, so the first prioerty was to find some food. After eating dinner we stopped by Captain Sundae's for an ice cream treat. Saturday we visited Notre Dame in South Bend Indiana. We had a great vacation!

The video above is all the fun we had in Michigan!

Today was Simon's Birthday! Happy Birthday Simon! He turned eight years old! Si will be baptized on August 1st! For his birthday Simon took his friend Daniel to the Splash Island, and then he came home to Mario Cart Wii from Grandma and Jan and Mom and Dad! How fun!

Happy 40th Lunar Landing

2009-07-20T16:21:00.000-07:00

Happy 4oth Lunar Landing! To Buzz and Neal thanks for the Lunar Landing from Rhett and Link.

Viva la Story

2009-07-19T17:25:00.000-07:00

Here is a cool video called Viva La Story played by Jon Schmidt. It is really awesome! Enjoy!

Fourth of July

2009-07-14T11:30:00.000-07:00

Rain, rain go away come again some other day! What did we do on the fourth of July? Well it rained an inch here in Plainfield, so we stayed inside for the entire Fourth of July! We did have a fun time preforming a skit for my parents though! We made pom-poms out of Walmart bags, Simon was Uncle Sam, Natalie sang a song, Drew did a little dance and we ended the skit with fireworks from Disneyland off of YouTube. All in all we had a pretty fun Fourth of July!

This movie is a combination of the pictures we got from our Simpson and Niederer cousins and the pictures we took of ourselves on the Fourth of July! Enjoy!

We went to the Indianapolis Museum of Art on Friday July 3rd. It was so beautiful! We didn't stay long but we stayed long enough to know that we love it! The paintings were very pretty as were the grounds of the Museum. We had such a good time at the museum!

Drew and Simon have been learning to ride their bikes! This first video is Drew getting started by himself on the first day of learning to ride his bike. Although Simon has had a harder time... he is doing a lot better! Here is a video of Simon's progress.

We went to the butterfly garden in the Indianapolis Zoo Monday July 14th (yesterday) It was really pretty! I did enjoy it but... I was totally engrossed in the Hunger Games! It was an awesome book! We also did a little rowing down the Indianapolis Canal also. It was a really fun day!

So now you are all caught up on our past few weeks!

Emma's Summer Reading List

2009-07-05T08:03:00.000-07:00

Everyone knows that I love to read, it's true! I have been reading a lot of books lately and now these books are all some of my favorites so I thought I would share my list with all of you!
The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits and a Very Interesting Boy. I really loved this book! It is a pretty short read, only about 25o pages but the type is really big.
The Penderwicks On Gardam Street is the second book about the Penderwicks. It is a great book about trust and doing what is right.

Seven Day Magic is kind of an old book it was written in the 1960's but it is a very good book. It is about four kids who find a magical book and it takes on lots of adventures!
Last but not least Percy Jackson and the Olympians, I actually read this series before any of the other books on the list. They are very exciting , adventure-packed books.

“A book is a gift you can open again and again.”

The Zoo

2009-07-04T07:43:00.001-07:00

HOT DOG! Finally the post about our trips to the zoo! The Niederer, Taylor and Simpson families all took a trip to the zoo on June 27th although we were not at the same zoo... we all still had a great time! Here's a little video about our trips to the zoo, (the pictures of the people were almost all taken by Tara and Emma took the pictures of the animals) anyway enjoy!

The Food Cart Song

2009-06-30T14:48:00.000-07:00

This video is called the Food Cart Song. It is hilarious ! Can you name all the vendors?

Relay for Life

2009-06-29T16:18:00.000-07:00

Good job Niederers/Taylors at the relay for life! We love you all and we were so sad to miss the event.

The Mighty Hercules

2009-06-26T08:05:00.001-07:00

So lately I have been reading the series Percy Jackson and the Olympians, (I really loved this series!!!!!) and when my brothers and sisters asked me if I could write them a play I had the perfect idea! I decided to have a play about Hercules the Greek hero. I picked up Natalie's Greek Mythology book and started writing a little play. Some disturbing things I learned about Hercules; 1st He went crazy 2nd He killed all his kids! Not the feel-good Disney movie eh?

Weekend Update

2009-06-22T18:42:00.000-07:00

We went to the Indianapolis Children's Museum for Family Home Afternoon. It was very fun! It is the largest children's museum in the United States and possibly the world. It is filled with exciting exibits like Star Wars the Clone Wars (Drew loved it!), Carousel's and Wishes and the coolest glass sculpture ever! These are just some pictures I got from the Internet becaue I forgot to take my camera to the museum but we bought a yearround membership (it only cost $125 for our entire family and 2 guests for the ENTIRE year!)
"It was Mrs. White with the wrench in the Dining Room!" shouts Sydney as she wins the Sunday night game of Clue. But that's not the real reason I posted these pictures of our game, so what is the real reason?? ( I'll give you a CLUE... look at the pictures of my mom and Natalie... do you see a difference???)

P.S. the shroud-encased, headless body is my lamp!! :)

A Father Indeed

2009-06-21T08:19:00.000-07:00

On the side of the blog there is a little video called A Father Indeed. It is the second video, the first one is in Spanish. Then you also want to watch the D. Todd Christofferson video too. It is the last video on the side! These videos are from the Mormon Messages channel on YouTube they are very good! So Enjoy! Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day!

2009-06-20T15:30:00.000-07:00

I would just like to say... HAPPY FATHER'S DAY! We really appreciate all of our great uncles, and our Granddad and especially our great Dad! You guys are sooo awesome! We love you so much! Thanks for all you do for our families! YOU ROCK!!!! :)
We are pretty much moved into our new house now! On Thursday afternoon we had the moving company come pick up our empty boxes which really helped us feel more moved in! All of the bedrooms are unpacked now and now all we have to do is paint the house and hang up pictures. We already love our new home!

On Thursday and Friday, Sydney and Emma went to pre-camp. It's just like a little teaser trip to get the girls ready for Girl's Camp. The pre-camp was at a place near Turkey Run State Park. They really had a lot of fun!

Just as a P.S. THANKS TAYLORS FOR UPDATING YOUR BLOG!!!

Home in Plainfield

2009-06-17T13:02:00.000-07:00

Monday night was our first Family Home Evening in Plainfield, Indiana! We made it to our house on last Friday at about noon. Then the next few days were spent unpacking and going to ward activities, Natalie went to Activity Days on Saturday and Emma went to a stake dance on Saturday as well. (Yeah we really did go to these activities the day after we moved in :) Sunday we went to church and the ward was very welcoming! We were invited to go to a family's house for dinner that very night! Monday, we bought a family membership to the Rec. Center that is about 5 minutes from our house. We have already been to Splash Island twice since then! We are so happy to be in our home and we love Plainfield!

Rendevous in Old Nauvoo

2009-06-15T07:42:00.000-07:00

These are all the statues in the garden dedicated to women.

Here are a few pictures we took in Nauvoo, there are a few pictures of the boys in their Pioneer Past Times outfits, and then our friend Sister Meline is with the boys (nice face Drew :)
(Here is a video from the show Sunset on the Mississippi, we really liked this number)

I know it has been a little while since we updated you on our trip.... so here it goes. We went to Nauvoo on last Tuesday and Wednesday. We visited a missionary couple from our ward in American Falls named the Melines, Sydney, Emma, Jennifer and Darrin were all able to go to the Nauvoo temple, we went on a wagon tour of old Nauvoo, and we went to a show called Sunset by the Mississippi it was a really fun variety show! After Sunset by the Mississippi the BYU ballroom dancers put on a little show, that was very entertaining as well. That night after the show we saw the Nauvoo temple all lit up outside, it was very beautiful. Wednesday morning before we left Nauvoo we walked down Parley Street to read the journal entries of the pioneers as they left Nauvoo. We could see the beautiful temple behind us and we thought about how hard it must have been for the saints to leave everything behind. Our trip to Nauvoo was great!

Natalie's Birthday!

2009-06-08T21:18:00.000-07:00

We forgot 2 things!

1st It was Natalie's 11th birthday! Happy Birthday Natalie! We went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. She got a book series called Percy Jackson and the Olympians for Grandma and Jan. Natalie is an amazing girl whom we all love!

2nd This one's for you Karsten! We passed the Denver Bronco's football stadium

Kansas

2009-06-08T20:40:00.000-07:00

Lions and Tigers and Bears! Oh my! Today we drove through Kansas, where we DID see a tornado, flying monkeys AND munchkins! Just kidding! Starting at 6:30 a.m. we hit the road!

I am a big fan of driving for hours in the car. . . JUST KIDDING. Getting up at the crack of dawn to ride for 9 hours might as well be a prison sentence. I made parole at Abilene, Kansas. This was a mistake. We stopped at the DQ, I had my hair in the pre-dawn dog-ears and was sporting my glasses, no make-up and some nice b.o. Emma and I hit the DQ first after Darrin said, "have fun in there with Johnny and his brother." Well, Johnny's brother had turret's syndrome and he was sitting in a booth making airplane noises. I very unkindly started to laugh so hard that I was snorting and I couldn't hold the snorts in. The combo of driving insanity and turret's was too much and I had to escape to the bathroom to laugh uncontrollably for three consecutive minutes. The good news was after DQ we only had to drive for four more hours. . . . kill me

2009-06-07T21:02:00.000-07:00

I love this family! After spending Thursday afternoon with Grandma Mae and Grandma Jan, we said good bye to the strains of "So Long, Farewell" from the Sound of Music. We really love our family! (Thanks Grandma for the awesome coloring supplies! They have really helped on our trip so far!)
Friday, we went to Salt Lake to visit Grandmother and the rest of the Simpson clan. Jeff helped us switch the programs from Mom's old lap-top to the new one so that I can continue to blog. Thanks Jeff!!!! Then on Saturday, we all went to Lindsey's baptism. We all had a wonderful time! Nice job Lindsey.
Driving through the Colorado mountains is how we spent the remainder of the day on Saturday, until we made it to the hotel where we are staying right now in Lakewood, Colorado. Sunday, we visited our friends David and Sara at their home in Denver, Colorado. We spent the day with them at a little park playing Bocce ball, and had an excellent dinner and dessert! David and Sara are awesome. Later that night we went to the Red Rocks ampli-theater, it was way cool! Tomorrow we wake up bright and early to drive through Kansas. Hope we don't see any muchkins, twisters, or flying monkeys.
So here is a little video that never uploaded while we were in Pocatello! It is called the Medley of Songs, and we filmed it on Memorial Day weekend with all the girl cousins, (except for Kelsey who was at work) We hope you enjoy the wonderful entertainment!
Here is another little video we created while we were in Pocatello that never uploaded. This one is called Missing Idaho. It is about all the places that we will miss in Idaho!

An Amazing Weekend

2009-06-02T18:17:00.000-07:00

This last weekend we spent time with our Niederer and Taylor cousins. Starting on Friday night, we went swimming( where we played keep away and scared away most of the people at the pool:) , we ate pizza and cake ( the cake was for Brigham because he was 6th grade student of the year at the middle school) we watched Phineas and Ferb AND we had races going up and down the stairs vs. the slowest elevator ever!

Then on Saturday we went swimming again, and had some fun times playing at hte park. At the park we all played flag tag. On one team we had all the fast people, Matt, Tara, Sydeny, Brigham, Karsten AND Simon and then there was the smart team (who won 3 out of the 4 games we played.) Christopher, Rebecca, Jennifer, Darrin, Emma, Ellie, Natalie and Kira. Everybody was sore for a long time!

After the park we all went to the movie, Up! It was such a cute movie! After the movie we played another short round of flag tag, where a boy from across the street came to play, and then we all said goodbye til the next time!

Saturday night was full of fun when Mom, Dad and Emma went to the Debate Banquet. Emma recieved a very nice plaque saying she was in Public Forum Debate and Salesmanship Speaking. We had such a nice time!

Monday night we went to the McCombs house for dinner. The McCombs have been our friends ever since they moved to Aberdeen. Playing Do your love you neighbor and a game called Animal Slap was tons of fun.

Videos, Rebecca's Photo and More

2009-05-27T14:45:00.000-07:00

So to reply to Rebecca's comment, we also had a beautiful experience at the temple doing baptisms for the dead, we had amazing caramel (well really it was marshmallow) popcorn, and we all were entertained playing flag tag! (Sorry Grandma, I loved this picture) And Rebecca as you requested here is your picture!
Here is Drew graduating from preschool! What a cute little boy that we all love!!

Memorial Day

2009-05-26T15:58:00.000-07:00

This weekend was filled with fun as we visited our family for Memorial Day weekend! Starting on Friday, we made our way from the hotel in Pocatello, to Grandma's house in Archer. All of us had a fun and relaxing weekend! On Saturday, we had an amazing tin foil dinner sponsored by Grandma, then we all migrated to Taylor's house to watch The Even Stevens Movie! What a fun day! Then on Sunday, we went to church with Grandma and then later in the day everybody came to Grandma's house for some of Jud's addicting pork. (it was pretty much the most amazing thing ever :) Throughout the day it had been raining off and on so we were all crossing our fingers that we could still go to the cemetary to scrub headstones. Eventually, we all did go to the cemetary and it was very fun!
Thanks for a great weekend everyone! We had such a wonderful time visiting our family!
Then on Monday, we went to Sister Gloy's house for a little visit. There the kids all played in the playhouse with our friends Kaitlyn, Rebecca, Bailey, Conner, Aftan and Cannon. Here are some pictures that we took with our good friends that we will miss very much!

Fun and Adventure at the Simpson's

2009-05-07T17:55:00.000-07:00

These past couple weeks have been full of adventure! The fun started on Friday May 1st when the Nybo's came to visit at our house! We had lots of fun with them watching Hoodwinked and hanging out together! Then on Saturday we all went to the M.S. walk in Idaho Falls! We all were entertained with going down a massive hill on the scooters! We had a great time at the M.S. Walk! ( Thanks Rebecca for having M.S. :)
Then Monday, May 4th was Sydney's birthday! She got to go shopping with money she received from Grandma Mae and Grandma Jan! We went to Downeast and Syd found the cute dress in the picture and a very cute blue and green jacket. Every year for Syd's birthday we go out to eat at a Chinese resturant and so we also did that on Syd's birthday! ( Sydney's fortune was that "a short stranger will soon come into your life.")
On Tuesday night, Mom and Dad went to Salt Lake to meetings for Dad's new job and so the Peterson's came to visit at our house! Brother Peterson is one of the awesome seminary teachers and American Falls High School! Kaydence is the Peterson's daughter. She is a very entertaining little girl! She wouldn't let any one but Drew touch her and she LOVED Drew! Kaydence followed him everywhere he went and tried to kiss him about every 30 seconds! Below is a little video of Kaydence saying Good Bye and Thank You. She is a very cute girl. Thank you so much Peterson's we had an awesome time!

Finally, here is a little video for your entertainment! After the Peterson's left we had a little downtime before our parents got home. We all have been inspired by American Idol lately, and so we decided we wanted to be just like them! So here is our amazing American Idol video! Hope you enjoy it!

Festival

2009-04-26T12:18:00.000-07:00

This Saturday the girl's had piano festival! They all did marvelous (as Drew would say) Natalie scored a 23 out of 25, Syd a 24 out of 25 and Emma 25 out of 25! So here is a little video we made this afternoon of the girl's and their piano songs! Hope you enjoy it! :)

Spring Break

2009-04-12T16:38:00.000-07:00

This year for spring break we started off like we have started off so many spring breaks in the past, with a trip to Grandmother’s house for conference. It was so fun to play with the Simpson and Nybo cousins! On Saturday night we even had a sleep over with everyone! It was a lot of fun being with all of the cousins. Many people are in this picture twice, but can you find the one person whose SAME picture is it twice??? ( The first person to email Emma @ simpsonfamilyfun@gmail.com will win a shiny penny:)

Sunday we drove to Rexburg and played with the Taylor, and Niederer cousins it was really fun! Monday, Jennifer and I flew to Indianapolis for the rest of the week to find a house. The kids all stayed at Grandma’s house and had a great time! Jenn and I were very blessed and found a house on the first day we went looking. We made an offer to buy the house on Wednesday. We spent the rest of the week touring schools and the rest of the attractions in Indianapolis. After 6 days, 4 airports, and 6 flights we were ready to be home. Quite a way to spend our spring break!

Drew's Birthday

2009-03-29T16:50:00.001-07:00

We’re so glad when Niederer’s come o’er, glad as we can be! Clap our hands and shout for joy! And climb on Tara’s knee. Put our arms around their neck hug them tight like this! Pat their cheeks and give them what? A GREAT BIG KISS ! (Karsten really liked that part )

The Niederer’s came over to our house this past week, and we had a ton of fun hanging with them! We stayed up late making and eating peanut butter cookies, and watching old movies Emma made at school. It was a blast! We love our cousins. (And Hailey of course)

Don’t let the music stop! On Monday, the girls went to a David Archuleta concert! He came to the Stephan’s Performing Arts Center in Pocatello. It was excellent! They had so much fun listening to his music and then downloaded the C.D. after the concert.

It is always a party at Grandma’s house! Monday was also Drew’s 5^th birthday so instead of having a big party at our house we decided to wait until Caleb’s baptism to celebrate. Drew had a great time! He got exactly what any five year old boy wanted: Star Wars guys! He also got a Clone Wars shirt, a Star Wars coloring book, and a couple baseball bats.

Syd had a debate in science this week: Resolved—if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it fall, does it make a sound? Syd argued that a tree does not make a sound because of sound waves and perception and some other good stuff we found on the internet and she won!

We witnessed the opposite side of Syd’s debate on Saturday: Resolved—if a tree falls in Mae Niederer’s front yard and 22 people are around to hear it does it make a sound. The answer? YES! And it sounds like this:

Mae: Phillip is in heaven laughing. Although he did tell everyone not to give me crap about planting the tree in the front yard, especially you children.

Simon representing everyone ages 8 and under: Wow! This is awesome!

Gary Wilcox: Mae, why don’t I carve a ‘nude’ in the stump?

Grandma Niederer: What’s happening?

Mae: I planted it there because the front door had a window, remember?

Ellie from the road: I think it looks pretty good

Emma: Move so I can get some pictures

Everyone: TIMBERRRRR

Exciting News! :)

2009-03-08T18:18:00.000-07:00

When Brother Anderson said to me “Your day won’t be the same after we talk.” He got that right! The Placement Committee called us on Wednesday and asked if our family would be interested in taking a new position in Indianapolis, IN. Since then we have been phoning family and friends nonstop and researching all about Indiana. When of the favorite things we have found is the podcast Doing Indy! You can see a sample of them at http://www.indy.org/indianapolis/web/jsp/podcast/podcast.jsp?channel=9295145&episode=13170321&p=1&x=1236562084547

So we have created our own version for your enjoyment! Stay tuned