JodySimmer.com

Dear Family and Friends, It is hard to believe that 2007 is already coming to an end. This has been a good year for our family, full of wonderful memories and many blessings. The biggest blessing and most exciting part of our year was the arrival of our little boy Jake on Oct. 2nd. He has been the perfect addition to our family! He is a very sweet baby and has stolen all our hearts, especially his big sisters! Jacy has been a busy girl this year. She is growing up so fast with the celebration of her 2nd birthday! She has been in gymnastics all year and has just recently started a dance class. She loves to twirl! She had 1 surgery, 3 visits to the ER with 1 ride in an ambulance and countless dr. appointments throughout the year. She handled them all like a pro-as usual! She is a very polite little girl and shows so much love for her new little brother. We couldn’t be more proud of her and the beautiful little girl she has become. Jay has been working hard as a Lineman Apprentice for SRP...

Jacy had her 1st dentist appointment this week! She did great! She saw Dr. Jared Welch, who is actually a childhood friend of mine. We are lucky enough to have his practice not very far from us. We were excited to hear that Jacy did not have any cavities!!! She loves to brush her teeth and seems to be doing a great job at it!

It is going by too fast! Jake just turned 2 months old! At his check-up he weighed in at 10lbs. 11oz. and is now 22 1/2 inches long. He is a very sweet baby! He is becoming more alert and getting pretty good at holding his head up. In the past 2 days I have noticed him smiling more and starting to grab for things. He loves his big sister, gives her the biggest smiles, and is managing to survive all her hugs and kisses. She loves to hold him. She is so caring towards him. He has beautiful dark blue eyes and his hair is coming in reddish brown. He is so handsome! We are so thankful to have him as part of our family. He is a true joy and a blessing!!!

Last Sunday we enjoyed the holiday brunch at the Mesa Country Club with Grandma Greta and Pardner. We had a really nice time! Before we had left I told Jacy that Santa would be there. The whole drive there she kept saying, "I don't want to sit on Santa's lap, Mom!" As we stood in line waiting for our turn Jacy spent a lot of time checking Santa out and watching how the other kids were reacting to him...she must have been satisfied because when it was our turn she decided she needed to tell Santa that she wanted a Barbie for Christmas! Both kids did great and Jacy even let Santa give her a kiss on the forehead. As she walked away from Santa she said to me, "That was fun!" We will see what next year brings.

On November 30th Jacy had a surgery called a Cystoscopy with Deflux Injection. During some testing last month it was determined that when Jacy urinates her urine refluxes back up to her kidneys. She has always done this, but within the last year her condition has worsened. This was concerning to the Dr. since Jacy has recently had frequent UTI's and this last one ended up as a kidney infection. The procedure was to inject a "bulking agent" into the ureter tube, to help provide a little more protection for the kidneys from the urine that is coming back up. As usual, she did an amazing job! She didn't cry or fuss at all while she was being sedated. She is so brave!!! The procedure only took about 15 minutes and with no incisions needed she wasn't in pain afterwards! The hard part was snapping out of the sedation. Usually she will be back to normal by the time we get home but this time it took her all day. They used demoral on her, which is not what they normally do...

This year was a very special Thanksgiving in St. Johns. After a wonderful Thanksgiving feast (Thanks Linda!) Jake was blessed by his Grandpa John and Uncle Jonathan. He had the most adorable little blessing suit that his Grandma Linda made for him. We had a great time spending time with the family. We also go to meet Evanna, Jonathan and Rachel's new daughter who was born on November 15th. We have so much to be thankful for!!!

The week before Thanksgiving we got to spend a fun-filled weekend in California. Our first stop...STOCKTON! It was Jayden Correa's birthday, he turned 3! We arrived on a Friday night and had a wonderful time at a family birthday celebration dinner for Jayden and his brother Andres. Saturday we got to hang out all day at their house and just relax and spend time with them. It was so great to see Brandy and her whole family. Jayden is such a special person in our lives. We were glad to spend so much time with him, and outside of the hospital! It is hard to believe, but this trip to San Francisco was Jacy's final check up with the MOMS program. They are the study we were involved with for Jacy's fetal surgery. They follow the kids until they are 2 1/2 years old. On Sunday night we got to meet up with the 4 wonderful families that we have become friends with through our experience with Jacy...Pictured is Valerie and her son Titus, Christy and her daughter Gillian, Cristy and he...

Jacy is growing up so fast! She is a beautiful little girl and has such an amazing little personality! She is an awesome big sister to Jake and loves him so much! She has become quite the little talker and most things that come out of her mouth really makes us laugh! She is 2 1/2 years old going on 16! She loves to get dressed up with her hair in bows. She has just started to enjoy playing dress up and has even started asking me for make-up! She has mastered the art of pushing her baby in her stroller, while talking on the cell phone and carrying her purse. She is going to make a great mom someday! Thanks to her Daddy she isn't ALL girly girly. She loves to play with her new Transformer cars! As you can see in the picture, she played until she just couldn't play anymore! Potty training isn't going really great right now... she would rather use her princess potty seat as a picture frame! She is starting to say so many funny things. Currently, her responses for most things ar...

It is so hard to believe that Jake is already 1 month old!! It is already going by too fast! He has been such and joy and blessing in our home. Jacy just can't get enough of him! She loves to hold him and kiss him... probably more than he wants! The last time we were at the pediatrician's office he weighed in at 6lbs. 11 oz. and was still 19 inches long. He is a good eater, a pretty good sleeper, an excellent snuggler and just an all around sweet boy!

We had a really fun Halloween this year! Jacy had a great time dressing up and getting LOTS of candy! On Tuesday Oct. 30th we had a ward Trunk-Or-Treating party at the church. Jacy got to play lots of games and got lots of candy. The kids also got to be in a costume parade. She dressed up as a beautiful ladybug! Jake hung out his first Halloween as a Pea-In-The-Pod. They were both SO ADORABLE!!!!! On Wednesday night Jacy was a little tired and grumpy and really didn't want anything to do with dressing up as a lady bug or going Trick-Or-Treating. We finally talked her into dressing up as Cinderella and she soon changed her tune when all her friends from daycare showed up to Trick-Or-Treat at our house. She was so excited and we ended up joining them for the rest of the evening. She really made a haul with the candy! Jacy wakes up each morning and the first thing she asks for is her "orange bucket". She is having fun getting to choose 2 treats out of her "orange bucket...

The weather is starting to cool down so last Friday I packed up the kids and headed to the Phoenix Zoo for a little fresh air and exercise! I am sad to admit that this was the first time I have ever taken Jacy to the zoo to see the animals! (We usually go at Christmas to see the lights) Jake got his first trip in early, at just 3 1/2 weeks old! We met up with my friend Amber and her son Liam. What a cutie!!! First stop was the petting zoo. There are sheep and goats of all sizes that love to be petted and fed by the kids. Jacy was a little afraid at first to pet them. When she realized it was time to leave the petting area she said, "I don't want to be scared!" and reached out and tapped the goat on the nose! She thought it was great and I was very proud of her! Jacy and Liam had a great time playing together and looking at all the neat animals. They even got to swing on a tire swing that looked like an animal and play on some old tractors. Jacy cried when we walked away f...

Jacy has unfortunately gotten another UTI (Urinary Tract Infection) and has been in the hospital since Friday afternoon. We noticed a high fever on Thursday, so we went to the pediatrician who confirmed the infection and gave her a big one-time dose of antibiotic via a shot and a prescription for oral antibiotics for the following 10 days. The medication didn't work. Friday morning she woke up feeling fine. No fever all morning. She took her afternoon nap and woke up with 104.1 fever. Her Dr. had us take her immediately to the ER. We are very fortunate to have an ER only about 3 minutes from us! They started more antibiotics there but weren't happy with her progress. The infection has travelled to her kidney's. They got her a bed at Chandler Regional Hospital, were she was transported by ambulance at 9:00pm Friday. It is now Sunday morning and she is still there, with no real good idea of when she will get to come home. She had an ultra sound of her kidney's yesterday m...

We are so excited to announce the arrival of our sweet baby boy... Jake Andrew Simmer! He was born on Tuesday October 2, 2007 at 10:53am. He weighed in at 6 pounds 6 ounces and was 19 inches long. Jake got to meet his big sister later that afternoon. She was quite taken by him! She kept saying "He's so tiny!" and she gave him lots of kisses and hugs. She would see me patting his back she would say, "I want to pet him!" My favorite moment of them meeting was when she looked at me and said, "Baby Jake... I love him!" Jake and I worked very hard to meet all the goals our Dr.'s had set for us and we were fortunate to be able to come home last night (Thursday October 4th) It was wonderful to be home as a family and to sleep in my own bed! =) The hardest part now is getting Jacy to leave him alone for some peace and quiet. My mom has been here watching Jacy while I was in the hospital. I am sure that Jacy wore her out a bit... we are very appreciativ...