Smile at every chance

One of the best parts about our reception day on the 27th was having Creative Bent capture the entire day. When choosing who would be taking our pictures way back in Fall 2011 I met with 4 different photographers. I immediately knew exactly who I wanted to use within literally 2 seconds of speaking with Anna. I think driving to the appointment I had already made up my mind before it even started. If you have not met Anna and her mother Judith then you are missing out. They are so sweet & happy & talented & wonderful!!! From my hair appointment at Artistic, to our house, then to our church grounds, Ratz park, & St. John's they took lots of photos. They made everyone at ease all day and embraced everything our group had to offer. Even the silly photo idea that Derek came up with. (this would be the one with everyone hiding behind Rhett & I poking their heads out.) Haha!! I really enjoyed being able to take pictures in our home, in our field, and our driveway. It does make them even more special. Here is the link to view our photos. Go to  weddings then proofing and enter password.

Enjoy! 

http://www.creativebent.net/

password simpson

Thank you Creative Bent for doing an amazing job! I am so so happy!!

All Things Baby

LOVE HER!

 

If you've been living under a rock & haven't heard..... I am getting a new niece in less than 2 months. January 10th 2013 is the due date. ( I think thats right) In the Simpson family we already have 11 nieces & nephews ranging from age 13 to 1. Never a dull moment EVER! Rhett is now the only one of his siblings who does not have a child or one on the way. Imagine the pressure. Haha!! Lets break it down for each family.

Jeremy is the eldest and he has 5 children

Erin is next she has 4 children

Rhett------3 furry children

Meghan is currently pregnant

Luke is the youngest and has 2 children

 

On Sunday we held Meghan's baby shower for sweet little Roxy.

 

 

Erin made the invites. So cute!

Everything with the shower turned out great. Erin, Elizabeth & Jenny (Meg's good friends) Brooke, Madison, & I had a lot of fun planning and decorating for it. I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did. Elizabeth brought a pinata for the kids, we played pin the mustache on the baby with a picture of a kid created by merging Jason & Meghan's pictures together. We had delicious food-chicken salad, mini corn dogs, pizza rolls, many dips with chips & crackers, lots of appetizers. Cupcake centerpieces, goey butter cake, cherry delight. I made the punch and used a new recipe which turned out to be yummy! So easy too because you can make ahead of time and then just pull out of freezer. One day Rhett said what in the world is all this red stuff taking space up in the freezer??

 

Luscious Slush Punch

Prep Time: 15 Minutes Cook Time: 5 Minutes Ready In: 8 Hours 20 Minutes Servings: 50

"A fruity concoction is frozen into a slush and then placed in a punch bowl with carbonated beverage. Makes enough for 2 punch bowls."

Ingredients:

1 cup white sugar 6 cups water 2 (3 ounce) packages strawberry flavored Jell-O® mix 1 (46 fluid ounce) can pineapple juice

2/3 cup lemon juice 1 quart orange juice 2 (2 liter) bottles lemon-lime flavored carbonated beverage

Directions:

1.

Bring the sugar, water, and strawberry flavored gelatin to a boil in a large saucepan; boil for 3 minutes. Stir in the pineapple juice, lemon juice, and orange juice. Divide mixture into 2 separate containers and freeze.

2.

Combine the contents of 1 container with 1 bottle of the lemon-lime flavored carbonated beverage in a punch bowl; stir until slushy. Repeat with remaining portions as needed. Erin made cute decorations out of baby gourds. She also painted this adorable picture and everyone stamped their fingerprints on it.When she sent me the picture via text I think my exact words were, "I can't wait to get pregnant so you can make me one of these with a baby deer." Such a cute idea!     I got together some baby pictures of both Meghan & Jason. Thank you Sunny & Margaret for helping me out with that! I also found this cute idea on pinterest. The picture sucks but you get the idea. Thank you Jenny, Erin, & Jaimee for contributing outfits to hang too. So many cute baby girl clothes!!



One thing I was extremely excited about was the diaper motorcyle I made. Jason is into motorcycles so I thought it to be fitting. I found this idea on pinterest as well. I watched the you tube video and it was easy as could be. We had a little mishap one night when Drake snuck into the bedroom knocked the cycle over and stole the elephant but I got it back quickly. I used 1 package of 36 diapers to make it. If you have an upcoming baby shower I highly suggest making one. So easy, cute, and can be used as decoration too.

I don't have a front view but the bib on front says Auntie's cupcake. The back bib says Grandma Love me.

 

 

 

Meghan & Jason received many wonderful gifts from friends and family. I am so looking forward to the moment when little Roxy arrives next year. I am getting very excited and can't wait to spoil & love her to bits. She has a wonderful family waiting for her. I know Meghan & Jason are going to be great parents! Meghan & I have always said we must have our kids close together so they have cousins close in age. Everyone else is pretty well done except for us so who knows what the future holds!!!

 

Erin & I with our mustachio & unibrow 

 

Run Run Rudolph

I had a fantastic weekend starting off with viewing my reception photos on Friday @ Creative Bent. I was super excited because I knew that Anna would capture wonderful images to remember our day. She did not disappoint. Soon I will have the link and will be able to share with everyone. She even gave me a little gift a wallet sized mini book with 10 of her favorite pictures.So Cute!!! Now I have to choose what image to use for our 16 x 20 that will get hung in our home. That is going to be a difficult task. I can not wait to see our finished album as well. While watching the slideshow she made I got a little teary eyed when the pictures of Rhett & I with the dogs came up.

Friday evening was the Rudolph 5K in Red Bud with the light parade following. That was a lot of fun. I wrapped battery operated lights around my arms to be festive. Typically when I do these runs I mainly walk with a little bit of running involved & it usually takes around 45-50 minutes. This time it took me 39 minutes 30 seconds. Since all along the main street people were lined up waiting for the parade it was quite an incentive to run a bit more. I think I need that all the time! Saturday is the holiday 5K in Sparta so it will probably be similar. Allie & I are going to brave the weather and do it. I walked with Design Fitness for the light parade and handed out beads. Since I had to work on Saturday bright & early at 4 am I headed home immediately after the parade. But not before my mother snapped a few pictures!!!

Someone on FB said my Mom should use this for our Christmas card this year. Haha!! Their is someone missing. I am sure Andrew would be just a bit sad if this got sent out to our friends and family. We wouldn't do that to you!!

Saturday was a pretty easy day at work. Thank goodness! In the evening I attended a trivia night for my cousin's softball teams. It was in Collinsville and did not even start until 7 pm. It was a late night and I was extremely tired by the end of it but had a lot of fun. Lots of yummy food and visiting with family. I honestly did not know many answers on the trivia. They had a silent auction that included a basket with dog treats, toys, and 1 year free supply purina dog food. It was not unlimited though only 12 coupons $26 value per coupon. With 3 dogs we go through waaaayyyyy more dog food than 1 bag a month. I tried my hardest to get it but people kept bidding it up and it got too high. Overall it was a great evening.

Sunday was the day I had really been looking forward to all week. I attended Avrie's baptism in the am and in the afternoon we had Meghan's baby shower for Roxy. The baptism was very nice but I had to get going right after church to go set up for the shower. I snapped a quick pick with the little dumpling. She is so sweet. Didn't even make a peep during the church service. I ordered her gift from Personal Creations and it turned out so cute.

In the evening Rhett needed to weigh a deer so we headed over to The Lingle's so I could get some time in with ms. Avrie. Since I did not get to spend time with her after the baptism that was a wonderful spur of the moment visit. I think in this picture she is saying "Look how big I am!!" 

The shower was absolutely wonderful but I will share all the details tomorrow! 

Today I am spending the day with my cute nephews. They are pretending to be doggies....we already have 3 dogs so today we have 5. Holy Moly!!!

Rewind Time

Since I never finished up discussing how our wedding evening went lets rewind back 41 days to Oct 6th. After the ceremony our guests headed back to the convention center while Rhett & I got a few more pictures at the Thorncrown Chapel. We had limited time and a portion of that went to family pictures and a whole group shot. I know I already shared this picture but it is too fun so I must show again. This really makes me smile! Justin looks like he is getting ready to do a cartwheel.

 

Everything went well at our mini reception. I think Jaimee spoke a little and then was the one who announced us before we walked in. So sad I already can't remember these little details. I thanked everyone for coming (twice). Jason didn't have the video camera on so I started over so we could catch it on tape. Haha!! Our meal was very nice but I hardly ate anything. Someone even saved a few pigs n blanket for us.  Why is that??? I didn't even eat lunch I should have been starving. I did make a point of eating some cake though. Yum yum it was so good. I was extremely happy with the cake. It was very nice to have such a small group of people to visit with. Rhett & I had our sweetheart table where we sat. The small children had a table covered with butcher paper to color on. I gave the kids their goodie bags with lots of fun stuff! Stickers, toys, markers, snacks. That was the best idea ever to give them the gifts at that point because then they were very occupied. After the meal we walked around with the video camera asking for marriage advice from all our guests. That was fun! By about 9 most people had filtered out. It had been a long day so people were tired, had children who were tired, and some had an hour drive back to Branson. I was sad the party was over BUT the guys had a plan up their sleeves. Once I got the zillion buttons undone and my dress was off we headed back to Branson to where we stayed. We changed into comfier clothes and then met back up with Derek & Garrett. We then headed down to the Branson landing in search of a piano bar they heard about. I had never been to a piano bar so I had no idea what to expect. I had a wonderful time. Lots of great music, random drunk people making fools out of themselves dancing, good company, & strong drinks. I swear the one chick looked like she walked out of the movie "Almost Famous". She had the groupie look to her. After each song the pianoist would write something on the huge mirrored wall behind them. At the end of the night Derek went up to the lady and asked her to write something for him.

 

Crazy man!!!

 

After we left the piano bar Derek thought it would be fun to climb up this statue by the parking lot.

It is difficult to tell but that is actually kinda high up. I have no clue how he even got up there. More craziness!!

 

By this time it was around 1:30/2 am so we were getting hungry. Not too many places to eat at this time of the morning...it was Taco Bell or Denny's. I think Denny's won by a land slide!

 

We had such a wonderful time!

 

I am so thankful we went out to have a little fun because I really did not want our day to end at 9 pm.

 

The next day we slept all day and just lounged around the bed & breakfast. We met my family for lunch at our favorite place to eat. The Big Guitar!!! So yummy!

 



 

We stayed over night again and spent the evening going to the imax theatre & playing mini golf in fluorescent lights. If you have children and go to Branson I highly reccomend it bc the kids would love it! Our trip home was uneventful-Rhett drove while I slept. It was a wonderful wedding weekend!!!

 

Here is the link to view our wedding photos. I just received it yesterday so excited to be able to share it with everyone.

 

http://imageryphoto.zenfolio.com/simpsonsr

 

password is SimpsonSR

 

Enjoy!



Who loves wine???

Today Darla asked me if I feel lost yet with all the wedding festivities over?? The truth is NO because I am still doing stuff that has to do with it. I finally got all my pictures sorted and uploaded to Walgreen's from the bridal shower & bachelorette party. I got 2 cute photo albums for gifts so it worked out great for those pics. We received many great gifts from our family & friends. Here are just a few items we got hooked up with.

Both of these came from my brother Andrew and his girlfriend Rabecca.

Amazing! I started crying when I opened it and saw the photo album. Just too sweet and personal. Who doesn't love personalized gifts. I have always secretly wanted an antler wine rack. 2 of my favorite gifts we received. Thanks!! We definitely have enough wine to keep it stocked for the next 2 years. It is amazing how many bottles of wine we received. Rhett doesn't even drink it so I get to enjoy every bit of it. I told Erin & Meg (after Roxy is born) we will have a huge wine party! We might get a little crazy! We might have to invite more people than just the 3 of us! My parents gave us a personalized bottle of wine. That bottle will not be opened for a long time. Maybe on our 25th anniversary. 

An interesting and neat item we got is a WiltonArmetale serving dish. I had never even heard of this type of serveware before so I googled it and found some info. Their is a large variety to choose from on the website & this is the piece we have. It seems heavy duty and says you can put on grill, stove, in oven, or freezer. I am very much looking forward to using this dish a lot when I cook. (which I have been lacking in that department lately) Rhett said the other night "yah I heard that happens when you get married." Tomorrow he will be home from Missouri from hunting so I am planning to make a nice supper. Thank you so much Dan & Kay Nurnberger for this gift.

Lots of fun things decorative antler S, book with stories about married couples, food grinder that will attach to my kitchen aid mixer. I know this is probably sickening but we also received towels, Christmas decorations, frames, utensils, sheet set, casserole dishes, place mats, cookie sheet, camo tumblers, and $

I guess when you wait almost 12 years to get married you accumulate a lot of generous, amazing, & giving people. We are so thankful for everything. I very much enjoyed opening all the cards because I am a huge card person. I love giving greeting cards and receiving them. I always take my sweet time when picking out a card for an individual. Today I actually bought 2-both for babies. On Sunday I have a christening & baby shower. We had a few doubles & triples but for the most part all the cards were different. Holy moly we got a lot of cards. It took about 3 different evenings to go through them all. Rhett was watching his t.v. while I sat  on the couch opening them. Some I would read aloud, others I would pass over for him to look at. I recognized the handwriting on my Moms so I saved it for last. The one my long time sweet friend Leha gave us made me cry! See a trend here.....I can't imagine what is going to be like when I have children. On the front it reads

When good things happen to good people, everything's right with the world.

I don't know why this one got to me so much but it probably has a little bit to do with the fact that we have been friends forever. ( We used to make play dough when we were little kiddos) Haha!! Even though we don't see each other often it doesn't matter. Their are just some people that even if has been 1 year or 1 day it stays the same. So happy she & her husband could make the reception. Love you 2! 

The cutest one by far has a picture of a sign that says "Lovers Lane" (a green sign like what you would see an an interstate) Then it says "First came hugs, then came kisses.....now you'll be known as Mr and Mrs. So cute! Thanks Ms. Darla! I just knew it was from someone special before I even knew who it came from. 

I could honestly go on & on forever about all the sweet cards but then we would be here a long time. I had a wonderful 4 day weekend spending every moment with my family. Went shopping, to the movies, out to eat, to my Dad's football game and spent time catching up on my t.v. shows. Back to work tomorrow! Already looking forward to Friday. 

Home is where your Husband is

I got a nice surprise Tuesday night when I got home from work. Pulled up, get out of car, unlock door, walk in house (it was nice & warm....this should have been a clue), Rhett jumps out from behind the corner and scares the living crap out of me. He was out of town in Missouri hunting and was not to return until Thursday morning. He decided it would be fun to surprise me. Lovely surprise except for when I jumped 20 feet and starting screaming!! He thought it was pretty funny though. He of course had a wonderful fire burning in our fireplace. If I would have pulled up to our shed I also would have noticed the garage door was shut and that would have been another clue to tip me off. I had my Mom check on the dogs so she was at our house when he arrived home. He said he had to bribe her to keep from telling me he was there. He also said he would not scare me!!! Little stink!

I also got a nice surprise today from fed-ex...my wedding dress & veil in the preservation box. It looks so pretty all bundled up. It is hard to believe that the whole thing fits in that small box. Maybe one day it will get removed but for now it is safe & sound!

Now that the holidays are nearing I am wishing I had more canned goods to give out as gifts. I spent so much time making them for the wedding favors I did not make a lot of extra. I typically randomly give jars throughout the whole year some as gifts others just for fun. Next summer my plan will be make lots for Christmas gifts! I am so glad though that I gave them out as favors. I enjoyed the whole process and maybe it will inspire someone else to start canning. It is quite easy just a little time consuming. I have only been canning for about 3 years now. I think the first thing I made were the Simpson red cinnamon pickles. Margaret so kindly helped me throughout the whole process. In a way she got this crazy canning lady started. For the reception I think I made a total of 165 jars. I only had 10 left all zucchini relish. Someone even ate their strawberry jam with their meal at the reception. The empty jar was left on the table. Haha!! Thank you to everyone who took something home. I was a little worried I would have like 40 zucchini relish left so I was extremely happy with what little their was. I really only made that much because we had ridiculous amounts of the vegetable in our garden.

Here is Brooke & Erin setting it all up on Friday. Thanks ladies!! It looked great.

The end of the nights view!

The popcorn bar went over well too. Margaret made caramel popcorn & I got the kettle corn from Mike the  popcorn guy in Baldwin. (this is so sad I don't even know his last name) My Mom & I also bought some butter the night before just in case we ran out. As soon as we walked in Wal-Mart's doors boom their it was  right in front! The check-out guy was making fun of us for buying such large bags. All the caramel was gone, 8 of the 10 kettle corn bags and 1 whole butter. That was a lot of popcorn that got eaten!! 

Huge Thank You to Lynn Gonzalez for keeping it all stocked during the party! 

Also forgot to mention the other day when discussing the lights on the backdrop. Thanks to my father & his brother my Uncle Steve for rigging the lights up around the frames. I was messing with other things and it kinda got pawned off on them. It was pretty entertaining actually to see them setting it up!

I am so happy that family & friends got to make it from long & short distances. People traveled from Arizona, Minnesota, Washington MO, Defiant MO, O Fallon MO, Lake Ozark MO, St. Peter's MO, Colorado, Indiana, North Dakota, Springfield IL, Ruma, Red Bud, Sparta, Walsh, Troy IL, & so many more! Rhett & I are both so thankful to have such wonderful family & friends who came to celebrate with us. We appreciate everyone who traveled loooooong distances. 

I have the next 4 days off and plan to thoroughly ENJOY them!! Hope everyone has a great weekend starting now!!

1 Month & Many more moons to go!

Today marks 1 month for Rhett & I being married!! It really feels like the wedding was just last week. Time does fly when your having fun. It is now deer season so he is focused on killing the big one while I am focused on post wedding cleaning & organizing. I spent yesterday all day in my p.j.s running lots of laundry and sorting through gifts, decorations, and clothes. In the midst of going through the closet I found 2 of my prom dresses from high school. Seems so long ago ( almost 10 yrs now) I don't like clutter or keeping extra crap around the house but these I do believe will be staying. Maybe next time Brooke or Madison come over I will bribe them to put one on for fun.

As I said before I was very pleased with how everything turned out for the reception. I got many ideas off pinterest. Lets take a look at just a couple of them. I really loved this cake on the left but the white flowers just didn't pop enough so I decided to use brown. I purchased purple first but they were not the same shade as our cake topper and me being Mrs. super anal person I am just couldn't use them. Becky Cowell made our cake and every bit of that sucker was gone! (except for the top layer) It is in our freezer wrapped up nice & tight waiting for October 6, 2013. I hope it tastes delicious when we bust it out. Thank you so much to my Aunt Kay & Aunt Patti for cutting it for everyone to enjoy!

We also had a grooms cake which I can not thank my Mom, Aunt Nancy & Aunt Patti enough for dropping of cattails, picking up the cake, delivering it to the reception, & returning the extra pieces to Highland. It looked awesome and tasted so so good. We had about 8 pieces left I think Rhett & I ate all of them. Their was a little issue with the neck cracking which I am pretty sure was stressing out my Aunt Patti. I think it was from the travel in the car though. Didn't matter still looked great & tasted great. Mallard ducks are my favorite so that is why I choose that!

Another idea from pinterest was the backdrop for behind the head table. Laurie Becker so kindly said yes to helping me out with this. She is amazing! I did not see the finished product until Friday day before the reception. I was not worried though because I knew she would make it wonderful! Everything was done so far ahead of time & thinking back I can't believe how calm and not freaked out about getting it until the last minute.

The lights we used to highlight the frames were little finger lights for kids. Laurie suggested I get them from Dollar General. They are actually blue but they look purple so they worked great. They only came in packages with 1 blue, 1 red, 1 green so guess who got all the rest of them!! The kids just loved them. Also that backdrop is all foam not wood. I told you she was amazing!!  

Off to work now! Running late as always!!!!!

Dancing Queens & Sugar Cookies are so Sweet

It has almost been a week now that all our wedding festivities have been over. Such a sad sad day.....the great part is I have lots of pictures & video to look at to remember. Now I can go back to making supper on a regular basis, reading randomly whenever I feel like it, organizing my house, and keep focusing on being healthier. All of my time & energy pretty much revolved around wedding planning so I am ready for a break.

                                                    Here is the video link that Cosmo T put on his website.


                                           http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nhNQPmZOEs&feature=youtu.be

 I am not a dancer. If you really know me then you know I do NOT dance (normally). In almost 12 years I have never seen Rhett fast dance. We have only slow danced together maybe 5 times total. I told Tom (cosmo T) when we met on the Wednesday prior that neither us of would probably even dance that much at the reception. Allie & Avrie went along so I didn't have a boring trip to Carbondale. She said oh yes you will!! Boy she was right!! I had so much fun dancing and Rhett was even out there at the beginning shaking his tush. I really hope everyone enjoyed the DJ because I sure did. I am so glad we did the newlywed game too because that was a lot of fun. Thank you so much Jason for videotaping so in 25 years we can look back and laugh laugh laugh. Also the YMCA crew was awesome. On Wednesday during our meeting Tom asked me for several names of people he could call up there. I really had no idea who to say so right before the song spur of the moment decision....Jeremy Simpson, Erin Liefer, Brooke Supancic, Luke Simpson, & Justin Juelfs. Ahhhh!!!! It was fantastic. When I took a walk yesterday and was jamming out to my music I thought I feel like I could really dance some more. When I watched the video footage from our camera it was so sweet to see all the kids dancing & playing. Jake & Claire hugging & dancing just makes my heart melt. So sweet. Seeing all of the kids having such a good time makes me so happy. Seeing the adults laughing, dancing, being crazy is pretty great too!!! Tracey showing the young boys how to do thriller. Everyone joining in for the conga line. I know all my Dad's Musket friends had a good time & Bailey too! At one point my nephew Max said something similar to "What's wrong with my football coach..." Haha!! That little girl can sure dance. The snowball dance where you had to go grab someone from the crowd to join in. If you are looking for a good time at a party I would definitely recommend Cosmo T.

Another thing I hope everyone enjoyed was the sugar cookies. Huge thank you to Rhett's aunt Beulah & Aunt Doris, my mother, mother-in-law, & Madison. If you are a member of the Simpson family you have probably had those delicious sugar cookies before. They may not have been in the shape of a dog bone, paw print, or dog but you've probably tasted them. They are so yummy! Beulah so kindly made the dough and then I cut all the cookies out while she & Doris manned the oven. I think I got lucky because I had the easy part. There were 8 different cookies sheets going in and out of the oven for several hours and they didn't burn ANY!! We made over 300 cookies! This is I guess you could say a Simpson tradition. I asked who's wedding was the first that the sugar cookies were made for and I can not remember what Beulah told me but it was like 26 years ago. She said she made 2000 cookies. Holy Crap! I thought 300 was going to be a lot. Help me out here family!!!! If you are reading this and that person was you tell me what you can remember about your sugar cookies. I am so happy that the aunts were willing to take on this project one last time and help make my reception so special. It was not only fun while baking the cookies but icing as well. My mom, Margaret, & Madi helped with that. After icing they got put in my freezer for about 3 weeks.

I am sure glad that I ate like 4 broken cookies on Friday when setting them all up on the platters. There was not a single cookie leftover! One day I hope to carry this tradition on with my nieces & nephews. Being that Brooke is the oldest and is only 13 it should be a while but I do look forward to baking for them for their special day.

Time to go take a nap, work out, prepare for kiddo's b-day party this evening, & all those other wonderful things I should be doing around the house. Hope everyone has a great weekend!