Happy Birthday Mikkie Angel!

November 10th was a very hard day. Our sweet Mikkie would have been two years old. My parents came with Faith and I to the grave. Faith picked out a balloon and I picked out some nice, bright pink flowers. Perfect!

We had a party tonight for everyone to come to. I'm so grateful for all our family and friends and their love and support! It's nice to talk about Mikkie and share fun, sweet memories of her. I think the night turned out very well and we enjoyed the company of so many loved ones.

We met at the cemetery first and gathered around her grave while sharing memories and a few journal entries (by me) about her. Then we gave everyone one of the bright colored balloons and had everyone write one thing they promise to work on. I think after this we all feel like being a better person and already a better person for knowing Mikkie (at least for me anyways). So we wrote it on the balloon with permanent markers and let the balloons go all at once, up into the sky.....right up to Mikkie. :) My promise was to do more service, I better get crackin'. I love this idea and am going to keep this a tradition for all the years to come. (Yes, I realize the biggest picture in this is blurry, Dang it, I'm still mad about it. :(
Then we came back to our house for yummy food. I tried to stick with the theme of my poem I wrote for her, that we basically use for a lot of things about her now. I made some Rainbow cupcakes (remember these from Faith's party?) and a giant one just for her.... I could just see her stuffing her little face in it, enjoying it to the very last crumb. Since it was a chilly night I got some hot chocolate ready, this is the first time I've tasted the candy cane one...pretty good! All the other delicious food and goodies were brought by others that came, which I'm so grateful for! I was bakin' those cupcakes for hours, they are one of the most time-consuming things to make, but so worth it, aren't they so fun?!?! :)

I hope she liked it, I tried to give her a better party than last year. Wish I didn't wait... Sometimes there just isn't a 'next time', so no more slacking for me. :)

Happy birthday my sweet angel, I love you so very much!

I'll Think of You

Remember the poem I wrote for my little Mikkie for her funeral? I had a few people saying I should make it into a song, but it wasn't until my brother Dale said something that I really began to take it seriously. He is incredibly gifted with music and I had no doubt at all that he could come up with something beautiful. It didn't take him long at all and the first time he played the melody for me, I couldn't contain myself...tears just kept streaming down.

We had to change my poem a little to make it fit the music, and I had to come up with the chorus. It took me a while til I found the words that felt right.

We had the music done then talked of recording it. It was missing something. Singing. Someone has to sing the words, that's what the song is about. I immediately thought of a gal in our ward who has an amazing voice, Stephanie Hill. She has some cd's she's recorded and I remember hearing her voice before. She was so kind and willing enough to do this for me.

Well, last Friday we did it. We recorded it and I have my very own cd of the song. I've always thought it would be cool to put my poems to music, but cannot compose to save my life. I'm very grateful to Dale and Stephanie who have helped make this a reality, and perfect at that. The song could not be more perfect. I never have a dry eye when listening to it.

I put together a little slideshow that goes along with the lyrics. I know it's not professional, but I tried my best.

I am going to do a tree in memory of her for the Festival of Trees this year. I'm very excited. I'm going to sell this song for $1 and all of the proceeds will go to help with it....which will in turn go to Primary Children's Hospital....the place that tried so very hard to revive her. Most of all I'm hoping this song will touch others' hearts, as it comes from the heart of a mother who lost a most precious, angelic baby girl whom she loves more than life itself.

If you would like to purchase this song, you can click the Donate button below or on the top right hand side of this blog. You can purchase it for $1, and any donations will greatly be appreciated. All proceeds will ultimately be given to Primary Children's Hospital. The song will be emailed to you within 24 hours of payment.

Thank You.

I Am Like a Star Freebie Digi Kit

** NO LONGER DOWNLOADABLE FOR FREE **

Take a wild guess who this kit is dedicated to.......yup, my sweet angel Mikkie.

I didn't realize til I was folding her clothes how much her pajama top was part of my poem. The sun, rain, rainbow...totally cool. Perfect! There's a lot of symbolism in this kit.

-The star is from the song "I am like a star" which was her favorite bedtime song

-The helicopter is for when she "flew to Jesus"

-The butterfly for a few reasons--I was intending on decorating her room with a butterfly theme and purple, and cuz she always said "flaw" for 'fly' but flies aren't as cute as butterflies so I went with the latter....I'm sure she agrees. I just love butterflies.

-The gum balls because she LOVED gum. Absolutely loved gum. I would always be finding a whole empty pack in my purse.

-The 'white crochet paper' is a piece of her beautiful crocheted dress that was donated.

So there ya go, that's my baby girl in a nutshell. :) Add all the happiness and cuteness in the world and that's her. I love and miss her like crazy.

Here's the kit.

I hope you enjoy and have fun with this kit; it for sure came straight from my heart. :)

Move forward with Faith

I just finished setting up a blog where I will write down and share my experiences, thoughts and feelings on our journey of healing from our loss. I named it "Move Forward with Faith". Faith having two meanings... my daughter Faith, and obviously my faith in God.

It's for anyone and everyone who wants to read it. I hope it does some good.

The blog is a work in progress. I want to make it really special, bright and fun, but I wanted to hurry also so I can start recording things while they are fresh on my mind. :)

Grieving

I don’t know what to say except, please be patient with me for a little bit, while I am having an incredibly hard time dealing with the devastating loss of my baby Mikkie while vacationing at Bear Lake.

Many people have reached out with love and have asked how they can help. We are extremely grateful for everyone’s generosity, and it has truly made this burden we carry much lighter. Family, friends and people I’ve never met before. There are so many good people out there. To you and all those who are understanding, I am forever grateful to you. Thank you.
If you would like to help with the unexpected medical and funeral expenses, Tim’s friend has helped set up the donation button on the top right of my blog, or you can donate to the “Mikayla Harper Donations” at Zions Bank. We’d greatly appreciate anything you would be able to donate, no matter how small.

I’m still in shock, and things are still slowly sinking in, so I will be posting more about the trip and most likely this tragedy soon, until then, here’s a beautiful obituary for Mikayla that Tim’s sister put together.

Our sweet Mikayla Lynn Harper (Mikkie), born November 10th, 2008, left her earthly family to return to her Father in Heaven on August 14th, 2010, after a tragic accident while vacationing with her family.

Mikkie is survived by her parents, Tim and Laura Harper, and sister, Faith. In addition, she is survived by grandparents, Bruce and Terri Harper (formerly of Tooele) and Lyle and Tina Jessee (of Riverton), great-grandparents and many aunts, uncles, and cousins. Her great grandmother Lucille Harper and great grandfather Clayton Wilbur were among those who welcomed Mikkie to her heavenly home.

Mikkie had a special, sweet little spirit and brought joy and laughter to all those who knew her. She loved watching and playing with her older sister Faith and her cousins.

If you would like to join in support of the Harper family, a viewing will be held on Tuesday, August 17th, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Broomhead Mortuary at 12590 S. 2200 W., Riverton. Another viewing will be held at the LDS Meetinghouse located at 13400 S. 2700 W., Riverton on Wednesday, August 18th at 10 a.m., followed by funeral services at 11 a.m. Interment will be in the Riverton city cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, if you would like to help, a trust fund has been set up to help cover unexpected medical and funeral expenses at Zion’s Bank under Mikayla Harper Donations.

We are deeply saddened by the loss of her presence while we remain apart from her. We love you. Until we meet again sweet Mikkie…

Billy to Bob

Inside story here..... Mikkie's hair was getting really long, mostly in the back so it looked like a mullet, like this:

Being a hair stylist it drove my sister nuts :) I was only holding on to it cuz of the cute curl, but it was looking kinda funny, at least we got some good laughs from it. :) So.... point, Tammy started calling her Billy Ray.......cuz of the mullet.......As much as I liked the curl, I wasn't too fond of the new nickname. :) So it was time to chop chop.

Tam was achin' her achy breaky heart to chop it off.

Bye bye Billy Ray.

Hello Bob. :) Of course we didn't nickname her Bob, but that's what the cut is.

What a stinkin' cutie! She did so good!

We got Faith's hair cut also. It hasn't been cut since the accident. :) She found scissors somewhere and butchered her bangs last November...RIGHT after her first hair cut.

She's not getting anywhere near scissors this time. :)

Something about Sundays..........

That always makes me want to curl up and sleep all day. Why is that!

What else are we supposed to do............

when all 3 of us girls are stuck at home for the whole week with a cold! Why not take a million pictures of randomness. We have time to kill.

The blue toe would be when Faith dropped a can on it 2 weeks ago. it made a pretty purple when we painted it though. =) She loves getting her nails painted!

Mikkie on the other hand....I had to use the mega fast drying nail polish for her . Good thing it's PINK =)

I love my little girlies! They are so fun, cute and silly....from the looks of the pictures, you can tell where they get their silliness from... ;) Life's too short to be serious all the time, eh!

The big 1!!

My lil baby turned 1 Tuesday!! People weren't lying when they said kids grow up too fast. It feels just like yesterday that I had her. Thank goodness it wasn't though. =)

I'm very glad we had Mikkie when we did. She's the perfect lil sister and friend for Faith. They are good buddies. It's so sweet to see them play with eachother now. It makes their mama happy. =) She was a bit tougher of a baby. Except labor....it was quicker and better than Faith's....45 minutes man! I'm dang proud of that! Recovery was also quicker and nicer with her. But she did have colic. I think I grayed a lil and lost some hair during that phase.

Some things that describe her and some of her favorite things:

She has the best, cutest puppy face

She loves playing with her big sister

She is a precious lil angel

She could eat a whole box of cheerios

She'll put anything in her mouth..but especially likes to chew and eat the crayons.

She pulls books off shelf all the time and takes after her sister in ripping them.

She loves to climb the stairs. She's had it mastered going up for a while, going down...not so much and scares me when she attempts to by herself.

She loves her bottle, she's a very good eater.

She LOVES, loves phones and anything else that glows. I can always count on it to keep her quiet.

She loves bath time, especially playing with Faith and toys in there.

She is a chomper...loves to bite toes, fingers, cheek and noses....and pretty much anywhere else she can get to. Tim's nose is especially her favorite.

She likes to munch on grapes all day long.

We had a pumpkin themed party, cuz she's my lil Punkin'. Her birthday snuck up on me, so it was a little more low key but was still fun! Oh and btw, these pix are all from my phone, so they're not the highest quality, but hey it's better than nothing, right?! Faithy decided it would be fun to break my camera's battery charger. So....yea ;)

A pumpkin bundt cake * decided to try something different for a sign instead of paper, I used gourds * cute lil treat bags for the kids and I DID remember to give them out this time!! * Mikkie in her 3 cute outfits she got! She looks so cutsie in all of them!

Yummy Pumpkin cream cheese spread with bagels that I will share the recipe for cuz it was so good * Pumpkin butter we got from CT with saltines were quite tasty * Orange cream punch which I'm also going to share the wealth cuz I likey so much * All of our guests who made the night so much fun- I thought it was cool how Coleman was twirling a balloon and with my bad camera it made it look more like a cool burst of orange light

Present time- got some cute stuff! It was so nice of everyone. * I got a personal chocolate fudge cake for Mikkie to dig into * She got the hang of it pretty fast * big bow from present on her head* Look how strong she is standing all by herself * orange banner to go along with the orange/pumpkin theme.

Wow, long post! Just so much to say about our sweet baby girl and how much fun it is to have her in our family!

RECIPES:

Pumpkin cream cheese spread

Ingredients:
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Beat all ingredients in a medium mixing bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth.

Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 24 hours. Makes 1-1/2 cups (24, 1-tablespoon servings).

Orange Cream Punch

ingredients

• 1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 12-ounce can frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
• Orange food coloring
• 2 1-liter bottles club soda or ginger ale, chilled
• Orange sherbet

directions

1. In a punch bowl combine sweetened condensed milk and orange juice concentrate. Tint with orange food coloring, if desired. Add club soda.

2. Top with small scoops of orange sherbet. Serve immediately. Makes 16 servings.

Baby bum dance

Faithy and I were dancing today (yes, to Christmas music, so sue me ;) and Mikkie started doing her hilarious version of a bum dance. =) and once again, ignore my weird laugh..haha I hate how I sound on videos/tapes.

Fun with Mikkie!

Have a few fun pix of Mikkie that are just too cute not to share.

Smoothie face.

Enjoyed her chocolate cookie a bit too much.

Fuzzy static do

Aunt Tam decided she like the do so much, she'd gel it into place. haha

This lil girl cracks me up.

Fishy Face Mikkie

Mikkie showed us one of her new things she does, which is sucking like a fishy when eating a popsicle... so darn cute! We took the video on Tim's phone, so the volume is kinda low.

Views, Snooze and other news

Not very many parks have an amazing view like this! The hike up to the park was a good work out right up to the slide, but it was worth it!Faith had a sticker frenzy, sticking them anywhere and everywhere including our couch, Tim's backpack, the tv, wall, and as you can see, Mikkie. Foam stickers...it's the new fad!

Faith used to fall asleep a lot in her johnny jumper, she loved it. This is the first time Mikkie has fallen asleep in it. It was funny cuz I hear her jumping then silence, jumping, then silence. I look and she's sleep-jumping! Too cute!

Sunday entertainment

This is what we do for entertainment around our house on Sundays...... sit and watch our girls getting bopped on the head and then laugh our heads off play so peacefully and nice together.

All I want for Christmas (in July) is....

...my 4 front teeth!

This lil girl is sprouting teefies all at once, it's crazy! All 4 have popped through in July. Not a fun experience...look how sad she is...*sniff sniff* I'm going to miss her lil gummer smile.

Speaking of teeth...... I hope you have a sweet tooth, cuz I have lots of Goodies comin up! And I'm not just talking about the edible kind. ;)