Happy Thanksgiving!

Although these pctures aren't from our hoiday Thanksgiving celebration, it is very Autumn, which is my favorite! I love the smells and the excitement! This day we, my loyal and true friends and I, raked the leaves in my yard and let te kids jump in them! It was a lot of fun and the kids were fun!

For Thanksgiving we had three different meals! ha ha. We celebrated early with my family the Sunday before. It was really nice. We had my cousin there and we kept things simpler than years past. My favorite part was my mom made a tree and sister helped her cut out leaves. Everyone wrote what they were grateful for and shared it with the group. They Spirit was strong and it was beautifully emotional!

Then on the actual day of we went to my parents again and it was just us and them. It was nice to have a personal intimate little meal just them and us! We watched I Love Lucy! Fun! Fun!

Then on Saturday after we went to Mike's side. They had decided to do a tour the world theme so we all brought food from our ethnic backgrounds. It was fun and adventurous! The kids got into everything! Once they got into the left over rice and Eliannah was completely caked in it!

All in all we had a wonderful 3 Thanksgivings!

Halloween

Happy Halloween Everyone! My favorite holiday has come and gone. *sigh. But we had a really good time celebrating it this month. On the 17th we went to a birthday Halloween party for our nephew Inacio. He turned one! We played the funnest game of Musical chairs that I have ever played! There was also a pinata. Above is a picture of Eliannah as Boo from Monster's Inc. at that party. We also had so much fun cleaning up after the party. ha ha. Some of the helium balloons went up into the ceiling in the gymnasium of the church so the guys used darts to try to pop them.

The night before Halloween we went to a Haunted house which was so much fun! We went with Mike's family and it was very memorable.

Here we are just before we went trick or treating! This was the first year that my girls actually went door to door instead of a trunk or treat. Sayde did so well and even little Ellie was doing a good job of saying "Teat, te Teat!" Mike didn't go with us. Our brother in law Chris gave him his extra ticket and they went to the Utah game. It was blackout night and that is why he painted his whole face and head black. He looks so creepy that that to me. Ha ha. Mike, Me as Strawberry Shortcake, Tsadakah as Tinkerbell, and Eliannah as Boo.

These pictures were taken of Sayde right before she went to costume day dance class. She makes a wonderful Tinkerbell!

This spider is real!!! A woman came over to pick something up and she asked if it was a decoration because it was so big and unique looking. No!!! It is just the scariest thing that I have seen since Arachnophobia! After taking its picture I smashed the crud out of it!! I just hope that it doesn't have a family somewhere close by. Yuck!

My Big Secret!

I think that this is pretty self explanatory. I'm about 61/2 weeks so I haven't gone to a doctor. I don't know an exact due date yet.

My Birthday!

Happy Birthday to me! Here I am with my girls the night of my bday! I didn't take a picture of the cake because it turned out to look so ugly! It tasted alright but it still wasn't the best Ive ever made. While Mike was at work I took the kids to the high school's homecoming parade. It was really great. There was a ton of candy and the kids had so much fun going after it. Then we ate cake and opened presents when Mike got home. I have to say that he is the best gift giver! He always out does me! He gets me everything that I want and dream of and he has the best taste in jewelry and shoes. I got a yoga mat, a classic book that is out of print and as such very expensive, and new ear buds, top brand. it was a great bday!

I used to think that Tsadakah was destined to dance because of her passion for it, but lately an additional passion has emerged! Cooking! She is always asking to help me make dinner or cookies or CAKE! She understands a lot about it for her age too. Then one day when I was "too busy" to play I found her beind the couch putting together a culinary masterpiece. I think that it is so cute that she has set the table all fancy for this! She was very proud of it too

Wrapping up SummerTime

The Wilbergs had a fun, local, family reunion. These are backwards but the second day, sunday, we went to the Layton Park (Sigh Memories!) It was so much fun! We had a feast and then we had a FHE that was so neat. i really liked that and I hope that we do it again and again for the future!
Here are the cousins playing on a big rock. It was so adorable! I didn't get any pictures where the kids were all looking! bumber!

Here is Eliannah playing in the sand. Oh boy! Both of my girls love to get dirty! it just might be the death of me. lol

Ok so here, the day before, we are at the Heritage Park. I love that place! It is so fun! There are pony rides too. Eliannah looks so cute here in front of the candy store.

This was a completely different time. So when I was out watering our Tomatoe plants i heard some meowing. Thre is an ally way behind my house that my nieghbors say people just abandon their cats at when they don't want the responsibility anymore. It is really sad because the other nieghbors trap the cats and send them to the pound, but they never know if there are a litter of kittens out there waiting for their mommy to come back.

I didn't really know all of this but when I turned around I saw two little kittens who were despereately trying to crawl to me. Their cries were so heart-breaking! i couldn't help but want to help them. I brought them inside and washed them. They really were precious!

But as I tried to feed them I decided that I thought that they came from 2 different litters because one was totally developed enough to know how to drink from a bowl and the other couldn't even drink from a bottle.

Anyways, my kids loved them! We called the Animal shelter because there was no way that we could have taken care of them. They will probably end up putting them down but I believe that is more humane then letting it slowly starve to death because they don't have the nurturing of a mother and the ability to eat. They were such a joy to have in our home for that short time though.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

My dad just had a birthday on the 7th. I wont say how old he turned cause he is sensitive about getting older. Last year he had a pretty crummy birthday so we wanted to do something special for him. We planned a special surprise for him with fresh made tortilla fajitas, watching his favorite movie and a couple musical numbers that we prepared.
My dad works strange hours and you never know when he is getting off. We made him promise to get off by 4 but he didn't. We waited and waited and called and called and no guest of honor!!! We ended up eating dinner without him. We were going to eat the cake without him too when finally he walked in the door...at 8:00!!! Here are the grandkids greating him.

For the musical entertainment we picked a Beach Boys song and changed the lyrics to have him in it. Then my sisters and I dressed in my mom's clothes from the 70's and sang it to everyone. It was so much fun!!! My sisters helped me change the lyrics and they are so talented. My parents laughed so hard as we highlighted the funny moments in our family. left to right: Leah, me, Simcah.


Then it was the kids turn to perform. We dressed them up and had them lipsink to Wild Thing! This is such a funny picture of my niece Lara. Datan is behind her.

Tsadakah actually looks to cute to be a wild thing. I tried to get her to wear something else but that was not happening! She wanted to wear the crazy tu tu only, which you can't even see in this picture. She loves everything that has to do with ballet right now! Much to my pleasure! Behind her you can see Datan again and in the very back is Olivia, who is quiet most of the time but when you ask her to perform she steps up and does it absolutely fabulous!

Here is Eliannah. A sneak peak into what she is being for halloween! She is a monster. And she actually LOVED being wild! She was laughing and laughing. She just loved singing for Pop Pop Steve. Next to us is Simcah with her lil' wild thing, Asher.

Happpy Birthday Daddy! Glad that you are home so that we can be with you for special time like these!

Events without pictures

Ok so I have some stories but I didn't take pictures.

Tsadakah has had issues with the dentists and it has been so frustrating for me. When she turned 3 (in may) I took her to the dentist and they said she had 2 cavities, which totally made me sad! I remember when I first went to the dentist I was like 6 and I had 4. I felt so bad like I had let my daddy down and I was ashamed to come out to the waiting room and tell him that. He was totally loving and kind about it and told me it was ok and really tried to chear me up. Now that I am a parent I understand his perspective better, he was probably feeling bad because he felt responsible for my cavities and I probably broke his heart being so ashamed.

Tsadakah was too young to understand what was going on, but I felt so bad that she had cavities!! So I took her in and the dentist filled one cavity with nothing but laughing gas!!!! No kidding! She did great concidering the cercumstances, but the dentist thought she should go to the pediatric dentist for the other. So I went to them and they wanted to put her under. After a lot of discussion we compromised on the oral sudation. It worked well and I think that she would have done fine with just that and no shot, which was the WORST part!

As we were leaving I noticed some blood on her mouth. I told her not to bite it, we got into the car and by the time we got home I went to get her out and her lip and cheek were hamberger!! I totally over reacted!! I started crying...ok I was balling! I took her inside like she was going to die and wiped her mouth with mouth wash and stuffed it with cotton balls. Then I sat litterally 2 inches from her face for 2 hours to make sure that she didn't bit anymore. She hated that.

By the next day it was swollen to double the size and white and sick looking. I was so sad! It has taken a whole week to get better with me cleaning it after every meal. I am so strict about brushing their teeth now and if anybody gives them candy it is OFF WITH HIS HEAD! Just kidding, but I am really going to do everything I can to make sure that doesn't happen again! You can see why I didn't take pictures of this.

On a lighter note, She started dance lessons! I am so excited for it. I think that no matter what it cost I would do it because she loves to dance and perform so much!! last year and the ward talent show she was so excited to get on the stage and do the little dance that I taught her. I was so wrapped up with getting her dressead and there on time that I forgot my camera!!! I was so kicking myself! I guess that you will just have to wait until her first recital.

Wedding weekend

This last weekend we had a double reason to celebrate!! My niece (Yes she is my niece, Even though she is 3 years older than me!lol) Serenity, was sealed to her husband, Jerry. It was such a wonderful thing to be a part of and I am so grateful that I was able to be there.

Still so very much in LOVE! I was excited to do their pictures for them.

Then the next day we went to the wedding for my nephew, Mosiah. (Serenity's brother) His brides name is Amy and she is a doll. We are glad to welcome her into the family! She had a photographer, but here are some of the pictures that I nabbed of my own. He is so absolutely in love with her. He was crying during the whole thing. I am so happy for you MO!

And here are some of my nephews and nephews in law with the father and stepfather. Left to right: Merric, Clint, Mosiah, Mike, Kaj, Reed, and Jerry!

Room For the Kiddies

I finally got my kids bedroom all decorated! It has only taken me 2 years!! lol. But I am quite pleased with it. The only thing that I didn't add that was in the plans originally was I was going to paint some pictures of the disney princesses to frame and put up, but I decided I am way to busy for that and if I waited to do that then I would never be finished! So here it is!

I really really like it because I used a lot of things that I have collected over the years from people who love me and my girls so I feel that I have in a way surrounded them with LOVE!

My obsession with fairies has been deep seeded for a long time so I have many statues that are beautiful and together they are breath taking! The middle one I bought in Brazil! The picture was painted by my young women's leader Judy Cooley, who is absolutely amazing and sales her art and has authored 2 books!!! She was my mentor and still holds a place in my heart. The butterfly "Best Friends" key chain I got from my niece, Stasia, who really has been my Best Friend the longest.

This side of the room is great, you can see the flower bows that my sister, Simcah, makes! They are so gorgeous and fun for little girls (of which I have pleanty). Also, next to the picture of Eliannah you can see the sand castle that she brought back for me from Hawaii when she was in High School. The book shelf actually used to be my brothers GIJoe fort but I painted it...lol...sorry brother! The dresser was mikes when he was lil.

We have been blessed to the max with blankets from loved ones. These aren't even all that we have! In the crib is one made by Simcah. The one on the back of the rocking chair is from Mike's Grandmother. And the one on the bottom was made by my wonderful sis in law, Kari. The rocking chair came from my sis in law, Becky, who has been the most wonderful and helpful friend that I could ask for. Truly a kindred spirit. And the adorable lion stuffed animal (which actually unfolds to become a pillow) was given from my sister Leah, who has the biggest heart toward children.

This last picture features the poster that my High School friend Lanaiah gave me...again with fairies. More blankets(On Tsadakah's bed): The bottom one which is Tinkerbell (The intended theme...ish) was made by my sis in law's sis in law, Shellece. The croche'd pink one at the end was made by my amazing mother, and the main one is the classic pillow patch quilt made by Simcah. If you don't know that story ask me the next time you see me. To sum it up, Simcah is the best quilter ever!

Well that about sums it up! There is the tour of my little ones' room.

A Time of Sorrow and Mourning

On Friday, July 31, I got a call from my mother informing me that my cousin's son, Cooper, died in a tragic car accident. It has been something that I cannot stop thinking about, or crying about. I feel so deeply for my cousins. I have been praying non-stop for them and their healing time. My Niece emailed me the blogsite for the family and in reading it I am glad to find how faithful they are. My heart still reaches out to them forever and my prayers will not cease.

Generally my way of healing is to write poetry. So I have written a poem. I hope that it accurately expresses my feelings.

Tonight I hold my children
Tonight I hear them laugh
Tonight I pray beside them
Instead of praying on their behalf

Tonight it seems so unfair
Tonight seems so unreal
Tonight my heart is breaking
For the reality seems so sereal

Tonight I cry for loved ones
Tonight I wish I could help
Tonight I wish to tell them
All the love God for them has felt

Tonight I know Christ is with them
Tonight I hope they feel Him there
Tonight may they know atonement
In the abundance He doth share

Tonight perhaps they'll doubt
Tonight they'll question "Why?"
Tonight they must learn to see things
Eternal, up beyond the sky

My sister, Shannah, also lost a son, Michael, at the age of 8 over 20 years ago and I know that this time has been perticularly difficult for her because she is feeling the pain all anew. I wrote a poem about that too, about 7 years ago which I have never shown her, but I thought that given the cercumstances I should add it aswell.

Suddenly,
it comes time.
Time to learn of tragedy.
Without warning
the words are spoken.
Nobody is ever expecting
to hear that
"Death has come."
How can a person
blurt the words out
without tenderness?
How can they not?

Suddenly,
it comes time.
Time to stop breathing.
It feels as though
the world should
drastically change.
Everyone,
just like you,
should stop.
But the world doesn't stop.
It was only
Your breathe.

I have never had to cope with the death first hand, so these poems reflect what I imagine it must feel like to lose a child. I am sorry if I have said the wrong things because I know that there are some times when a person is mourning that they don't want to hear. Like in Steal Magnolias when she says that she is in a better place because Shelly is in heaven and the mom says, "I don't want her in heaven I want her here!"

I believe that Cooper, Matthew and Michael, along with other ancestors who have past on before, have all been with their families this weekend and will continue to be, to help us who are left behind. There is a scripture that I can't find, but it says to not mourn for the spirit for it is with Christ, but to mourn for the lose of that life to this world. I think that this wonderful family has done such a beautiful job of that. You can tell by they things that they say that they understand that spiritually, Cooper is saved, and they are giving a wonderful memory to his time here with us.

I am grateful for the Gospel and for Jesus Christ and His atonement which makes it possible for all to return to God. Especiallly little children. And because he saved us from the grave we can understand when He meant when He said: "for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow." Jeremiah 31:13.

It is my testimony that these things are true! My prayers and love are with them. If you would like to see pictures of this beautiful boys life here is the blogsite.
www.cooperkofford.blogspot.com

Celebrating Their Homecoming

Homecoming!

Welcome Home Bro. And Sis. Fershtut, better known as Mommy and Daddy!

My parents were in the Philippines for an 18 month mission. When they left Tsadakah was 16 months old (the same age as Eliannah is now) and they had never seen Elle before. What a joyous reunion!

Summer Fun

Here in Tooele we have a mini Heritage park that shows all the buildings that were built here when the pioneers first arived. It is a really cute place and they sometimes have great activities for the kids to do. We went there to take some pictures. And when I say we, I mean my friend Denelle and I. Here is Eliannah on the bridge. Special thanks to Shallece who gave me some artistic photography tips that I used in this picture.

This picture is one of my favorites because although she isnt looking you can see the American Flag in the background. It feels very patriotic and reverent to me.

I just have to say that I have the two best friends that any Stay at home mother could ask for. They are so laid back and yet sparadic enough to jump up and do one of my crazy ideas at the drop of a hat! They are so supportive of my silly ideas and I always have fun. Thanks Joanna and Denelle!

Speaking of crazy ideas, I wanted to go out to a big rock next to the Salt Lake just to take pictures. And they were all up for it and even got the directions for it! We had so much fun taking pictures and the kids LOVED climbing! What little dare devils I have for kids!

Here is Tsadakah and Denelle's daughter, Madison. Denelle was up there with them. Don't call the social services on me. lol OOps I forgot to edit out the grafiti! But they are darling aren't they?

My precious baby isn't so much a baby anymore. OY!



This was a different day where we just got all of the kids together to run in the sprinklers, but they didn't like it because my sprinklers are too high. So we turned them off and thankfully Denelle brought a kiddie pool. It was a lot of fun. I got out our bath toys and they were squirting each other with them. Elle has the octopus and the dragon in this picture.

Here they all are playing happily without the sprinklers. Left to Right: Abby, Eliannah, Tsadakah, and Madison.

Here is the SHOCK they got when we turned the sprinklers on them by secret! ha ha!


And here they are running for their lives to get out of there! ha ha! What fun little children are!

Again, nobody call the social workers. lol

Tsadakah and Abby trying to squirt each other.