JodySimmer.com

Happy Easter! What a wonderful Easter we had together today! The kids woke up to find that the Easter bunny did in fact leave them some treats and they thought that was pretty awesome! In addition to the treats they found in the baskets Jacy had also dyed 5 eggs at school this week, and the bunny had hid those in our living room for her to find. That bunny was pretty sneaky with a couple of them! After breakfast it was off to church. I always love Easter Sunday because they always have the most beautiful musical numbers!!! After church we came home to have some lunch and then the kids got to get started on the chocolate bunnies... Can someone say sugar overload! I think I went into sugar shock just looking at them! After the cleanup we headed out back to play and realized that the Easter bunny had hidden a bunch of eggs around the backyard as well... what a fun Easter egg hunt that was! While we sat around the table for dinner we read a children's book about Easter. It is amazing t...

For Jacy's birthday this year we invited a few of her friends over to play in the backyard and enjoy a "lunchable" picnic. The weather was beautiful and I think that everyone had a great time. The highlight of the party was the cake.... Princess Belle! When the cake arrived the girls just stood around the table starting at her and didn't want to play! It was an amazing looking cake...and DELICIOUS too! The party ended with some fun High School Musical Karaoke. What great singers all the girls were! Jacy, I can't believe that you are 4... Happy Birthday my sweet baby girl. I love you!

Our birthday girl turned 4 today!!! To help her celebrate we got up early this morning and made a quick run to Wal-Mart and picked up cupcakes for all of her class at school. She picked Hello Kitty for the Girls and Superman for the boys, with princess plates and napkins! What a combo! When daddy got home we went to for a special Birthday dinner at Texas Roadhouse. She didn't want them to yell the loud "Texas YEEHAW" for her, but she did get ice cream and she did want to sit on the saddle! Then it was off to Wal-Mart so that she could pick out her special birthday present. After a lot of looking and carefully weighing the options, the beanbag chair took a very close 2nd to the High School Musical karaoke microphone. She LOVES the High School Musical movies! She even has her HSM pajamas on! The microphone plays 10 songs from the movies and you can hear Jacy singing to the music through the TV! It is very cool and she is quite the performer! Happy Birthday Jacy- We love you...

I thought I was doing Jay a favor by taking the kids to the Renaissance festival all day on Saturday... until I came home to find TWO NEW BABY TURKEY'S! For some reason Jay found his way to the local feed store and thought it would be fun to let the kids have some pets... Turkeys??? Jacy and Jake LOVE them! Jacy quickly came up with names for both of them. Kennedy is the yellow one (hers) and Carburetor is the brown one (Jake's) . The kids want to hold them all the time. We had to limit it to once a day because we figured it isn't good for them to be handled so much, being so young. They are only about 2 weeks old. We really have to watch Jake around them. He is a bit rough and likes to pinch their heads. The first night we had them Jacy woke up around 2:30am crying that she wanted to hold Kennedy and didn't think that Kennedy would still be there later in the morning. I think she is starting to catch on that the Kennedy and Carburetor "live" with us now and ...

As a family, we have been working very hard on getting our front and back yards in order. It has been fun to be outside pulling weeds, planting, and enjoying this BEAUTIFUL WEATHER! In the front yard we have added 4 new shrubs, 2 new trees, and some beautiful flowers. The backyard grass is getting really green and beautiful! We are ready for a fun spring and summer OUTDOORS!!! To add some color to the front yard I got some flower planters. I was pretty proud at my first attempt to arrange the flowers!

My first couple of weeks of being a SAHM (Stay-At-Home-Mom for those of you who don't know the lingo!) have been WONDERFUL!!!! My kids are healthy and happy and we are having a great time together! We spend some of our days getting the house back in order (and we still have a little ways to go) but also do lots of fun stuff too! Last Wednesday we met my friend Amber and her little man Liam at the Children's Museum of Phoenix. What a great place!!! There are all kinds of hands-on-activities for the kids to do! My personal favorite was the "noodle forest" where there are hundreds of foam noodles hanging from the ceiling and the kids walk through them. TOO FUN! The first time through Liam came out missing his shoes! Amber stayed with Laim and Jacy in the art studio where they got to make some new headbands and I took Jake to the 3 and under room so that he could run around a bit himself. We really did have a great time... Amber, we can't wait for our next "f...

As of Friday February 27th I have two new boss's...Jacy and Jake! We held our first "executive" meeting this week...at the ZOO! Our family has taken a direct hit from the struggling economy and we are considering it a true blessing in disguise! Labor force reductions at SRP resulted in my entire department being dissolved. We have decided that it is more beneficial for our family for me to be home with our kids, so after 10 years with SRP I have accepted a severance package and I am now a STAY AT HOME MOM! It is kind of scary going to a one-income family but we KNOW that it was the best decision for our family. I am really looking forward to being with my kids more and watching them grow! The kids had their last day at New Horizons Pre-School and Daycare on Friday. Their teachers and friends were very sad to see them go. We are so grateful for the time they spent with the kids and all of the wonderful things that they taught them. Ms. Susan, Ms. Erin, and Ms. Ladonna...yo...