Chandler's Visit

I was able to travel to Aunt Joyce's house today to meet Jon's little boy Chandler Jonathan today for the first time. He will be 2 years old on September 2nd. He's a very cute little boy. Is a spitting image of his father. It was a lot of fun to see him, as well as to see him interact with Braden and Brigg (Mike & Nikki's kids). You can see more pictures on my mom and dad's blog (like about 30 pictures :).

My brother's family

I just posted their pictures on my Mom & Dad's blog, go check them out, they are adorable!
http://danjanicesims.blogspot.com/2009/03/dannys-family.html

Update on Rob

Well we have been playing phone tag with the Dr for a week, still haven't been able to get through to them, but he did the overnight pulse oximetry test last Monday, and the Dr told the Home Health Service they want a sleep study to determine what type of sleep apnea he has and what he would need to be one, in the meantime they are so concerned about him, they are putting him on Oxygen at night until he is able to do the sleep study, they are working with the oxygen company to get something set up ASAP, but need more info from Dr, so will be calling them 1st thing in the morning (Dr's office closes at noon on Weds/Fri). We have an appointment next Monday with the Cardiologist (for his Blood Pressure), then the Sleep Study place also that day for a consultation and to set up his overnight study. We have an appt with the Pulmonologist in a month. (That was the soonest they could get him in).

As for him right now, he's doing pretty good, his weight is starting to come down, he has to make an extra notch in his belt as his belt is too big for him. He has been eating a lot more fruits/vegetables and is eating a slimfast smoothie at night instead of dinner since he gets home so late. I'm really proud of him. His BP is also doing better as he has a lot less water retention in his legs, and they are 'squishy' now instead of tight, he's been taking the Heart Health Pack from Costco. Anyways just wanted to post a quick update. He tells me he's 'mad' at me for making him go see my 'witch' doctor, but at the same time very grateful we now have a Dr who has half a brain, and is getting him the help he needs.

Family Recipe Database

The Family Recipes Database is UP and running! This is for family of Robert & Heather Thompson! We are going to collect bunches (hopefully) of recipes from both sides of our families and then load them into the book. We will probably have a "Briggs Family Cookbook" then a "Sims Family Cookbook take 2" and a "Thompson Family cookbook" so feel free to e-mail your recipes to cprcheetah@comcast.net we are hoping to get lots of input and support with this from both sides of our families! We are working on having a 'submittal' page where you can just type in your recipes.

Here is the link for the page: http://family.rnht.net/recipes/
Just click on one of the names/books on the top of the page to see the recipes, then click on the recipe name for the recipe.

Our Recipes is Rob N Heather's favorites...just a couple so far added.
Meal Master & More Meal Master have TONS and TONS of various Recipes
Sims Family Cookbook is the printed cookbook Jen Sims did for her Laurel Project way back when

7 Minute Icing on Angel Food Cake

So it's not exactly "Diet" Friendly, but today was my dad's 66th birthday and I wanted to do something special for him. So I called my mom last night and asked what his favorite cake was...it is Angel Food Cake with his Mom's Seven Minute Frosting recipe. So I baked the cake last night at about 11:15 (Yah I was wired last night). Then this morning I attempted to make the frosting, the first attempt didn't really work out as we could only find 1/2 of our double boiler, and our hand mixer was acting up. So I was near tears and hubby gave the go ahead to go pick up a double boiler and a new hand mixer. I was so excited! So I made it and it's more like 20-30 minute frosting not 7 minute frosting :) I had to mix it for 20 minutes before it was forming peaks, so I probably should have gone a few minutes longer to get it even stiffer!

So I work for my dad, my mom had physical therapy and needed a ride home today. My dad didn't have any appointments, so we 'booked' a phony one to keep him at work so we could surprise him. I picked up my mom, gathered all the employees in the exam room, set up the cake etc, and told my dad his appointment was there. Now mind you, he thinks he has a real appointment there so he's asking all sorts of questions, how old is it, how long has it been vomiting, has it had any shots? any diarrhea? Yah I was stuttering and stammering coming up with answers, but it worked. As we went into the exam room all the workers started singing Happy Birthday to him. The look of happiness, and joy on his face was a kodak moment for sure (wish I would have thought to grab my camera), he was SOOOOO happy. I also got one of his favorite icecreams vanilla/orange sherbert combo, his favorite drink Orange Crush too. Overall I think it went well, the only thing I should have done differently was cook/beat it a little longer. My mom was impressed with how it went and said I can be the official "Dad" birthday cake maker from now on HA HA! My Grandpa (RIP)'s birthday was on Feb 23rd, and he preferred German Chocolate Cake w/homemade frosting, then my dad's birthday was 2 days later so they had the Angel Food/7 Min Frosting cake 2 days later :)

Here is the recipe for Phoebe Smith's (Great Grandma) 7 Minute Frosting

From: Gilda Sims
Makes: 1 servings
Ingredients:
	2 egg whites 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup white syrup 1 tablespoon lemon juice 1/4 cup orange juice 1 tablespoon orange rind
Instructions:
	Make sure the cake is very cool before trying to frost. Beat all ingredients constantly in top of double boiler over medium-high heat, except orange rind, until stiff peaks form. Add orange rind and spread over cake.

Here are pictures of the cake I made:

Update on Jonathan

For an update on Jon's divorce visit Mom & Dad's blog:
http://danjanicesims.blogspot.com/2009/02/update-on-jonathan.html

Sims Family Dinner

Sunday was our monthly 'family' dinner, it was special as Danny was here from Canada to see the open house of the new Draper Temple. It was just Danny, Tyson, Nate & Alyssa as Makenna had an ear infection so Kristy & Amber stayed home with her. Anyways Brigg (Mike & Nikki's oldest) and Alyssa were having a ball playing with the hula hoop. They were singing Jingle Bells! Too Cute! (Sorry no sound on my camera).

Here are some random pictures of the kids (kids are always cuter than adults anyways).
Brigg playing with a mini etch a sketch

Brigg & Alyssa playing with the hula hoop

Brigg & Alyssa, that's Nate in the background

A very happy Braden

Braden, Showing me his truck and as you can tell he REALLY enjoyed the dinner :)

Family Website Database

Rob has been busily working on our website, he has developed a database for our Recipes, which includes some of our favorite recipes, as well as "The Sims Family Cookbook, that Jennifer did for her Laurels project for my dad's side of the family 'eons' ago. It's really cool, searchable, and automatically grabs the recipes from our KRecipes cookbook that we put in there. Anyways we thought it would be cool to have a "Family n Friends" Recipe Website where you can post some of your favorite family recipes etc. We would like your help in compiling recipes. So please send any and all recipes to heathernrob@gmail.com Send the ingredients, directions, comments, any pictures etc to us. If you know where the recipe came from please put that on there as well. We will put up a sample here in a bit so you can see how the website is going to work. We have been adding comments to some of our recipes, such as needed more flavor, or added this or that to it and it really made it. Thanks! We are VERY excited about this.

Mikey & Kristen Sierra, BJ Holt, Natalie Nelson

Kristen Sierra, BJ Holt, Natalie Nelson, Jen Holt & Jaden Holt

The confetti all over the place..again why my dad likes to have the party at his house...look at that mess...glad I don't live there anymore and don't have to clean up! ;)

New Years 2009 Part 1

There is nothing like ringing the new year in with family. Here are some pictures that were taken on New Years Party at my dad's house...he LOVES to have New Years Eve at his house because that way he can make a huge mess with the confetti and won't get in trouble! He's like a little kid in that regard! We played a couple of games, Oodles, and Last Word, we have a fun time playing the games usually it's Men against Women, Lara does wonderful for the women, and Rob and BJ usually kick butt for the men. It was funny, my dad doesn't here well and the one game had a buzzer and he would always say the answer a few seconds after the buzzer, he's good for a chuckle! We love you Dad!

Rob and I, snuggled for the new year! What a happy couple!


Toasting with Martinelli's for the New Year

Another toasting picture:

L-R Uncle Mike, Aunt Joyce, Rob, My mom Janice, and Jon reading his 'factoid book'

Same except add my dad in the right after Jon

L-R Mikey & Kristen Sierra, BJ, Natalie and Jen & little Braden, and then Aunt Joyce in the red, you can see my dad's Projection TV with the Times Square in the background

What a wonderful day....

Our day began with Rob waking me up at around 7:30ish with a loud "HO HO HO, Merry Christmas", he said he'd been trying to wake me up for 1/2 an hour! LOL! I'm a HEAVY HEAVY sleeper. We went downstairs and noticed that Santa had been there...he'd eaten a bite of the cookie we'd left out for him. ;) We looked at and opened our stockings, I got a couple packs of earrings, we both got jolly ranchers, chocolate covered pretzel balls, thin mints, jelly bellys (sours & tropical), and a bananna. Then started the gift opening. Rob got the worlds 'smallest' remote controlled Helicopter from www.thinkgeek.com (if you have a person who loves gadgets and gizmos and an adult who loves 'kiddy' toys....I'd strongly suggest you visit this site) as well as a Carnivorous Plant Kit (venus fly trap), he'd been wanting both of those for quite some time. He also got a Cybook Book Reader (Digital Book Reader) from Santa, we both got one of those, they are AWESOME and actually look like a 'paperback' book on the screen. He also got an M&M's dispenser fortune teller (aka his new decision maker for work). He got an extra 2 Gig SD Memory Card for his new bookreader. He got some socks, then I got him some of his 'favorite' holiday traditions candies (lifesavers book, a pecan log). We both also got new computer keyboards as ours were both worn out. We also got a nice standing lamp for our Living Room...we are going to get another one as we like this one so well.

Rob got me a "Slanket' which is essentially a blanket with sleeves to keep me warm, yet 'functional'. It's really really cool! I am ALWAYS cold and Rob is ALWAYS making sure I am covered up. He's always so cute and 'tender' about it! He also got me a 'ped egg' as my feet are bad. I got a new electrical blanket, as mine has wires poking out of it and is no longer 'safe'. BUT I use it just about EVERY night, Rob sleeps with the window open essentially ALL YEAR ROUND! I also got some stamps for scrapbooking, a nice microplush robe, some slippers, socks, 2 really nice necklaces, 1 is a crystalish type with a cat in mother of pearl type stuff, the other is Cubic with 2 hearts intertwined as one. I also got a MUCH needed Coat, I only have a heavier type jacket, as I haven't boughten a coat since I got back from my mission in 2003. WOW has it really been that long? My new coat is AWESOME, definitely gonna keep me warm.

After we opened presents we called Rob's brother and sister and his mom. His sister Eva lives in Grantsville and told Rob she told her kids not to come because of the snow, I guess they were getting hit really hard out there. Where we used to live last year in West Jordan got 12" of snow and the power was out and roads were closed! The wind was blowing really bad out here around 20MPH and it was snowing, Rob had a bad feeling so we stayed home from Bountiful, both of us cried, we wanted our FINN & HADDY. Rob loves that! Which is saying a lot as he is NOT a fish person. We were watching Rudolph and fell asleep cuddled on the couch after that. We woke up, Rob played with his toys, we had leftover Chinese for lunch and then just surfed on our puters, and watched a couple more Christmas Shows. We watched The Christmas Card (tearjerker and VERY good show), and Chevy Chases Christmas Vacation. We spent the evening in each others arms just loving each other. Overall we've had the best Christmas yet that we've had together this year. The only thing that could have made it more perfect is if we were able to make it to Bountiful. We are planning on visiting Rob's mom and heading out to Bountiful on Sunday to deliver and get the rest of our presents.

We are truly grateful for this holiday season, and are in remembrance of the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. We have an ornament that one of the people Rob home taught made for him that has Jesus picture on it, at the top of our tree. Which helps us to remember the wonderful birth and life of our Savior.

I have pictures I will try to get them posted in the next day or so.

White Christmas

Well we DEFINITELY are having a WHITE CHRISTMAS. We had a nice morning, opened presents etc, and were going to go out ot Bountiful at 11:00am for Finn & Haddy breakfast (that was Rob's determining factor as to whether or not we were going...not really) but Rob LOVES Finn & Haddy (Smoked Haddock). He is NOT a fish person either. It is snowing so bad here that the roads would be hazardous to get past the point of the mountain here. So sadly we have to postpone our Christmas morning/presents at The Sims house. We both cried about it as we really wanted to go. Finn & Haddy is one of my 'FAVORITE' Christmas traditions. Rob says if the forecast is calling for bad snow in the future we're gonna have to get our own as that's one tradition he wants to continue with our family.

Here are some pictures from our backyard...you can see how much snow there is here: It's still coming down and the wind is blowing it everywhere too. We know why the SR92 had such a disastrous storm/problem here last year the night that it took Rob 5 hours to get home from Orem to West Jordan (it normally took him 1 hr), but here in Lehi on the 'off' roads they don't exactly plow them the best. It's been an adventure trying to get up the hills and stuff. Especially in our complex, they don't 'salt' the roads so it's like trying to drive on an ice skating rink when there is snow out.

We also made Apple Sauce & Apple Jelly

Rob decided that since we were going to be canning might as well do some apples too. So he picked up 3 different varietes of apples and we peeled them using our nifty apple peeler

We got it from Walmart last December and LOVE it! Picking up some applesauce after it's been cooked. We left some chunks in there, it's pretty good!

Putting in some of the apple jelly. Again we used Splenda/Sugar mix and it was 1/2 of what the recipe called for and was still GREAT!

You can see the chunks in this. The Applesauce is almost the consistency of apple butter but not quite.

And of course Quality Control at it again:

BTW....it was DEFINITELY DeeJay Approved! She went NUTS for it kept pawing at my hand to get more!

It's hard work being the supervisor! DeeJay asleep on our Satellite Receiver....it's warm and one of her FAVORITE spots!

Canning Peaches

So my mom and dad gave us a BUNCH of Peaches from their peach trees....granted they sat in my dad's truck all day on a semi-warm day so they were REALLY REALLY ripe. I've never really put up anything on my own (remember helping my mom when I was younger). So Rob and I spent Conference Sunday (only day off before they were WAY too far gone to use) canning peaches while we listened to General Conference. Here's some pics/proof :)
We basically had a large apple box and 1/2 of a large laundry detergent bucket full! The Pint Jars were ALL we could find, we went to 4 stores all together and NO ONE had ANY Quart Jars, I guess canning is popular in Utah County! Look at how pretty they are!

Rob was the official peeler etc, they were so ripe we didn't even have to boil them to peel, it just slid right off!

I was the offically "Lid Putter Onner" :) This is what happens when you ask your husband to take a picture :) He's usually the camera PRO! We made the light syrup with 1/2 Sugar and 1/2 Splenda to cut calories!

Starting to heat up. We don't have the canning supplies yet so we had to improvise a little!

Finished Product! We got 18 Pints! We did have to throw some out probably could have gotten at least another 10-12 pints! My mom and dad got 24 pints out of the peaches they kept!

Quality Control: DeeJay was supervising!

My little nephew Chandler

Chandler Jonathan Sims was born 1 year ago today! He is my little brother Jonathan's baby along with his estranged wife Yeala. Jon and Yeala separated shortly before Christmas last year and they are still going through the 'motions' of divorce. It hasn't been a very nice one and unfortunately for my brother things haven't been the best for him. He is lucky enough to barely see his son once a month (he is supposed to be able to see him EVERY Saturday and Sunday) according to the temporary orders with the judge, but Yeala apparantly goes out of town 3 weekends a month, wouldn't that be nice????? I just hope Jon can stay strong for his son. It's heartbreaking for him. It's been a very TOUGH year for him. I know if given the chance, Jon can and will be an AWESOME father. He is very sensitive, nurturing and caring. We pray that Yeala's heart will be softened and she will give her son a chance to develop a relationship with his father.