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.

My Man!

Ok so I have 2 things to blog about. First, which was actually a month ago, we went HORSEBACK RIDING! It was so totally awesome! We went with our friends, B.J. and Denelle Miner. Thanks Denelle! It was the funnest DATE that we have had in like forever! We got a babysitter...well we had a free one cause a family that Mike did a little electrical help for offered to watch our kids! It was totally awesome! I feel like He woman! Because I actually ran the horse! 3X! Scariest and thrillingest thing of my life! LOVED IT!


Here is My Man on his horse! I totally loved seeing him in such a masculine setting! He was so great with the horses knowing what to do and getting it done and telling me how to do it. He grew up riding horses to heard cows so he had a lot of know how.
Poor Denelle fell off her horse. It was probably my fault because we kept trading back and forth our horses and when I traded I lengthened the stirups on hers and when we traded back they were too long for her so she couldn't get a good foot hold. We all felt bad, but she was tough and didn't even cry...like I would have. lol


So the other thing that I wanted to blog about was how wonderful Mike is! So I wanted to take pictures for Mike's sister and her fiance and they were coming over. I went to the gym and when I got back Mike had cleaned the entire house for me and was out in the yard mowing (with a push mower mind you), edging it and making the yard as nice as possible for the pictures to be taken!!!
And as if that wasn't enough, after they got there and we had taken the first set of pictures we came in and found that he had done this! Appetizers (Jalapino parmesan cheese dip), ice water, and juice! all in our fancies the way I like it!!! Ohh what a man! It should come as no surprise to anyone that this man's love language is service! I am so appreciative of all that he does for me, especially the little things. The thoughtful things like using the nice dishes because he know that I like that. Well, just had to praise him like I should!

July 4th

Happy Fourth of July everyone! I hope that yours was as much fun as ours! We went to Emery county to see Mike's family and friends. We saw his parents, brother and friends. It was so much fun! We went to the Huntington Parade in the morning and I think that it was the best parade I have been too. Granted we didn't get a lot of candy, but it wasn't crowded and that was what made it nice in my opinion.

Here is Mike and Tsadakah waiting for the beginning to start. As you can see she is so excited! I think that this picture is adorable. Totally precious!

Here she is saying "You hear that?"when the band was headed down the street. Mike and I hadn't been to Huntington for the 4th since we were talking about getting married 5 years ago. I can still clearly remember this parade at that time. We constantly were sharing memories and remembering old times. lol

I took like a thousand pictures of Eliannah and everytime that I did she would move right at the last moment and so this was the best one. She was of course adorable and loved the freedom! She was running all over and had no reservations about striking out on her own. We really had to watch her. lol Mike was a stinker and wouldn't wear the patriotic clothes that I packed for him.

Tsadakah comparing candy amounts with Mason, her cousin's cousin.

Ok this was the best part, so I had been holding Eliannah while trying to tell Tsadakah how things worked. Sayde kept running over to the other group of kids because that was the first place to get candy thrown to them, but by the time she got to them it would be gone, then she would run back and by that time all the candy that had been thrown to our group was gone too. lol So while I am trying to instruct her, Eliannah wiggles out of my arms. So I finish helping Tsadakah get some and turn around to get Ellie and what do I find?


Eliannah had independantly gotten 2 pieces of candy all my herself!!! HA HA! I couldn't believe it! She is so FUN!

Here is Jaxton who help yelling to the floats "I want Candy!" ha ha! At the beginning the fire trucks had driven by WITHOUT throwing candy and he just started balling! So funny!

We stayed with Mike's brother, Devin and his wife , Becky who just had a precious baby boy! Her sister Cindy and husband Mark were also staying the weekend. Left to Right: Mark, Kyler, Cindy, Mason, Jaxton, Becky, Xander, and Cole.

So after the parade we went to the wave pool and Mike got a tube and he took Tsadakah out. I watched as he put her on his lap and caught a great wave (they had them on pretty high) and the wave totally dumped them out of their tube! Then 2 waves washed over her before she was saved. She didn't comeout crying, brave lil' soul, but she didn't go back in the water the rest of the time. She wasn't the only casualty tho. Mike also headbutted a stranger to the point where he saw stars and got a MAJOR goose egg! Then Devin gave a kid a bloody nose! lol

Then that night we lit fire works in the street...another misshap! The first thing that we lit was sparklers. Here is Tsadakah with hers, then 2 seconds after the picture was taken, she got the sparker dangerously close to her hair so I said, "Tsadakah don't get it so close to your hair!" What does she do? She puts it right in her hair!!! I practically attacked her trying to keep it from lighting her hair a blaze! She totally singed her bangs! They had that burnt hair smell! she was crying and ended up going to bed for the night! Mike and I ended up snuggling and watching the fun kidless since Eliannah had already gone to bed too!

All in all it was a BLAST of a day!