JodySimmer.com

For those of you who know me well, you know that I am not the greatest cook in the kitchen....but that is changing!!! Now that I have a family I am trying really hard to become a better cook. I want to prepare nutritional meals for my kids so they will grow up to be healthy and strong... and I think it's gross that Jacy's favorite breakfast is frozen Eggo waffles...literally, still FROZEN! She gets upset when I try to heat them up or toast them for her. I recently got a cook book titled "Deceptively Delicous". It is a great cook book full of yummy recipes that hide "mystery" ingredients from your family. They will never guess what HEALTHY food they are actually eating! Jacy invited her Aunt Janell over for a sleep over so I thought I would give it a try. PINK Pancakes made with pureed BEETS and grated apple! They were beautiful and delicious!!! Jacy really loved them. She took 1 bite and said, "These are DELICIOUS!" It may have helped that I told ...

Finally , after several years the 4th of July fell on a Friday! We were so excited to be able to celebrate the weekend in Show Low with Grandpa Zeke, Grandma Debby, Grandma Greta and Pardner. My brother Justin and his family were also there! We had so much fun with everyone! On Friday morning the parade started at 9:00am sharp! It is so fun to see the WHOLE town come and line the streets to watch the parade go by! This was the first parade for both Jacy and Jake. Jacy was so excited, especially to see all the horses. Jake enjoyed the parade from the comfort of Grandma Debby's shoulder. After the parade we had lots of family friends over to my paren'ts house to BBQ and enjoy the perfect weather! We just sat outside and enjoyed each other's company while the kids ran through the sprinkler (the same clown sprinker that my brother and I played in as small kids!), played croquet, and helped Grandpa Zeke make homemade ice cream! YUMMY! The firework show started around 9:00pm Frid...

The week of June 23rd was our annual trip to Roosevelt Lake with Grandpa John, Grandma Linda, and all of my brother's and sister's and their families. As usual, we had a GREAT TIME! This was Jake's first time to the lake. As you can see in the picture he didn't let the water interfere with his nap time at all! Jacy had a blast swimming with her aunts, uncles, and cousins too! We got her a new floatation device that really helped her be able to swim on her own. It wrapped around her waist and had two arm floaties on it. She loved it and was a good little swimmer by the end of the week. It was the first time that we had REALLY used our new (old, but new to us) boat on the water. It ran great and made some fun (painful for some) memories of water skiing and tubing. Thanks Richardson family for such a fun week!!! We are already looking forward to next year!